Scene #8333: CY: More

Owner	Pose
Starbound Flotilla	Getting into Cy is easy. Wash in with the tides where the Great Ocean meets the Cyber Core at a particular archipelago, wash in with the rest of the resources that keep this city's hungry maw alive and then wash out with the rest of the filth it creates. This awful city, drenched in pollution and greed, where will, spirit, and biomass go in, and trash comes out. Getting into Central means getting around the Wall. This is where the rock fell, where the bombs dropped, where patient zero contracted it. And getting to the target means getting in from the north side, at Ports, where they actually maintain it. Evading the auto-turrets and drones was easier before with hacker aid, but it'll require some tricky maneuvers this time. It helps that most point inwards, and that on the outside, they're so benign that they don't even automatically shoot people running suspiciously. Why would they? The Ports district always has some bullshit happening. (1d100 <47>) There's a chromed-out man in an expensive suit, screaming and hiding his face, fleeing frantically from auto-reporter drones with cameras. He runs into the street and is smashed into cybernetic scrap by a passing vehicle, still struggling to hide his face as his battered torso rolls onto a sidewalk. The wall doesn't bat an eye, not until one of the drones circles the scene a bit too high, passing into the airspace over G0, and is sharply downed by high-caliber weapons fire. Ophrys is going to have one hell of a time extracting directions from the ramblings she has access to. (DATA INJECTED) For reasons unknown, Dane's voice chants a particular path in his sleep, during one of the recorded months, between screams of painful sleep and sessions of whimpering restlessness. Walk to this particular block -- start at Idol Coffins Hotel and move three north. Descend, descend, descend even more. Find the bulwark door at the base of a canal, where it floods at any hour other than this one. Take the stairs down to the My Wall club, and ask for a Terpsichore Sister to help. Tell her to take you to the heart of the pattern, the (1d20 <6>) studio where it was born. Inside G0, you need a guide or a lot of endurance to get around the pockets of nerve gas, the pockets of radiation, the pockets of ultraviolent nanophreaks. A Terpsichore Sister dressed all in (1d100 <74>) original 21st-century fashion under a (1d100 <89>) fully transparent hazmat suit proclaims that you've already paid for her services in advance before she takes you to the old studio grounds for (2d12 <3> <4>) Fossa Video Industries. A massive complex of high-tech movie industry business, now abandoned, (1d12 <4>) now left to soak in a mixture of late-winter sleet and slush. Once, filming supplies were offloaded at a storage warehouse entrance. "FOSSA" is in unlit signage over the front entrance, and plenty of side windows around the many floors, plus employee entrances at empty parking lots full of abandoned cars. Lights flicker inside the dark structure, but notably, the windows, the doors, even the overall structure... none of it seems nearly as filthy as it ought to be in the middle of an exclusion zone. The guide doesn't seem to want to get any closer.
Futaba Nuki	Two hours, a society at risk of collapse, and the return of a mysterious benefactor copying people's voices. It doesn't take long for the voice to convince Futaba to return to Cy, gliding towards the walled city on a trio gold and silver wings. It's only when she hears the gunshots from below at that drone that she gets the hint to maybe not stay in the air for so long, quickly diving into a roll and turning her wings back into her arms and a big silver sash around her waist. Futaba's dressed like a proper-ish ninja today, too, clad in a gray and black getup with her red scarf, green forehead leaf, and violently orange hair sticking out as the main sources of color on her. Needing to blend into the city necessitates actually looking like she belongs, though, and that's what turning her tail into a trench coat is for. It's easier not to stick out if she doesn't have that bumping arund, although the scarf is still flapping as a rule rather than as a suggestion. Finding the club, she waits for the rest of her companions on this outing to show up before heading further in, fighting the urge to greet everyone she sees in favor of just finding this strange Sister in order to get more directions and guidance to their next destination. Alas, Futaba doesn't have any specialized protections against radiation or nerve gas. She's rather sturdy with some modest healing ability to boot, though, so she'll rely on that to get through the unavoidable hazards of that sort while resorting to good old-fashioned violence against those nanophreaks in the form of battering the crap out of them with fists formed into giant stone hammers on the way to the video complex. "Looks... Cleaner than I thought it'd be. You sure this is the place?" She asks the Sister even while she approaches the building, peering through windows and extending her legs to cartoonishly ludicrous lengths as needed to get a peek inside. Assuming the whole interior isn't on fire or visibly filled with horrible gas, she'll crack open of the windows (figuratively or literally) before wriggling herself inside, then popping the front door open from there if someone else doesn't get to the door first.
Isaac Beaufort	The introduction to the docs was...horrifying, to say the least. All Isaac could do was watched the obviously diseased and harassed man run, get smashed, and then still recorded. He couldn't do anything about his issues, or the drones. Hopefully, it provides some distraction as he sneaks by to avoid the gunfire. He follows Ophrys, who seems to have the knowledge of where to go. Though he was outwardly squeamish at the situation last time, this time he's more collected and stone-faced. He's trying to bottle up everything he's experiencing right now, not wanting to let it out and burden other people. It's fine, he can do this. Thanks to their guide, he doesn't have to play 'find the route' and become irradiated and nerve gassed. He notices the guide does not want to get closer, so he smiles at them and thanks them for the help. He lets Futaba go inside first to open the way, and he steps inside himself. "Do...we know where to go from here?" he asks Ophrys. He's really depending on her to know where to go.
Ophrys	Entering CY when someone can turn invisible is a remarkably trivial matter. Finding a place out of sight to disable cloaking and engage camouflage-- equally straightforward. The cyborg assassin Ophrys is effectively Already Here. Five years of audio from multiple sources is an awful lot to dig through in a short amount of time. Focusing on a familiar voice seemed like, at least, 'a place to start'. Fortunately it seems that mister Dane is still helping out, even when he's not an active participant. Even if his madness-mantra of directions are entirely referential and cryptic, it gives her enough to work with. As during her prior visit to CY, the assassin is in full GhostWare disguise, projecting an immaculate suit jacket and pencil skirt in this week's cutting edge of fashion. The metals and plastics of her body neatly hidden beneath an illusory skin. Someone who looks perhaps far too Connected to enter a hole like the My Wall Club on the regular. Asking after and securing the aid of their Tersichore contact is relatively straightforward from there, although when entering G0, she only pauses to put on a breathing mask. No hazmat suit seemingly required. When the group reaches the remarkably clean studio complex some time later, she pauses to behold it. Glancing back towards their guide, she reads that hesitant body language. Yellow, faintly glowing eyes close and she relents, "You can wait for us out here for the return trip. However..." The GhostWare disguise flickers and fades, finally. Glasslike wings flip up from Ophrys' back into their ready position while she unfurls her antennae, "Kindly tell us why you'd rather not go beyond this point."
Starbound Flotilla	"Certain it's the one." The Sister mutters to Futaba. She explains to Ophrys, "Nothing fun if I walk into that. In Cy, clean means people, work, and an image. Why is someone caring about image in G0...? Not Nanos. I know you don't care for the Blessed, but we understand them. If there's any in there, it's none that the Sisterhood know. (1d6 <5>) It's something else, something worse. We'll be reclaiming it once you clear it out." Her grin is an amused sort. "Per our terms of payment." Then she looks, longingly, at it. "And if you see any old unreleased Blood Countess flicks, make sure they're not burned, please?" She hangs back, eager to watch with a set of binoculars. Futaba finds the halls bare, clean... how could something modestly luxurious survive like this? From a window to a door, there's nothing she needs to fear. Walk on in through the lobby, if you want. Nothing there but a pair of headless skeletons behind the security desk. Someone's been dusting, polishing, preserving them. But not the heads. What's that about? The minute one moves past the security checkpoint, something in the vents makes a rasping noise and tries to blast dual beams of chilling cryo-radiation through the slats at whoever walked past. Something that looks like a mummified human head, held aloft on pulsing silver-and-violet tendrils.
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac, once let in walks with Futaba and Ophrys. He doesn't see the person in the vents, not until they fire. He busts into a run, far quicker than his size would say, and turns to face the shot. He takes it square on, his chest, far more resistant to it than it should be, and he walks toward the shot. He punches through the vent itself and attempts to grab onto the mummified human head tentacle monster...and yank. His strength is monstrous, and for a moment the image of Frankenstien's monster can be seen behind him, stand like, as he pulls. Monster knows monster, and so too does his persona understand the brutality of something that hides in a vent.
Ophrys	Ophrys tilts her head attentively as the Sister explains her reasoning. After she's finished, the assassin nods once and makes a gesture with one hand, "Thank you. You and your Sisters are welcome to whatever's left once we get what we came for." She closes her eyes, the hint of a smile behind her breathing mask, "So please just stand by for now." She enters the building, accompanied by Isaac. She's actually a few paces ahead of him-- and the one who sets off the trap, though Isaac has the faster reaction to it and is rapidly in front of her and dealing with it. Yellow eyes narrow slightly. The cyborg slips around Isaac as he pulls on the head and its connecting tendrils. Reaching, she grasps at the tubes supporting the thing, sinking her fingertips in, searching for anything digital worth backtracing. LockSmith's UI pops up in the corner of her vision, a reminder that system protection is engaged.
Futaba Nuki	What's a Blood Countess supposed to be? It sounds like a vampire thing, so that might make it easy for Futaba to pick out some logos by sight if she actually comes across any gothic-y fonts and blood motifs on boxes. What the Sister said earlier about the Blessed and what else may be inside weighs on her mind far more than that, though, and she finds herself getting a little distracted even as she returns to her normal proportions to head in properly. The skeletons are somewhat concerning, but the lack of attention to the heads is what gets her questioning just what they're going to run into. <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "Something worse than the Blessed... Um. So! Not that I forgot, but what were those again? You know. For the kids at home." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Watch out!" <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "Say wh-OH HI!" <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "--Oh goodness. Thank you mister Beaufort." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort Mm! <J-IC-Scene> Cordner says, "The Blessed... the infested, the infected. G0's most gracious inhabitants! It's really complicated, I wouldn't worry about it." <J-IC-Scene> Cordner says, "I guided you around the ones we know, but... Well, nobody's going to begrudge you any self-defense." <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "Of course. Their security system is quite unique. I'll help myself to a closer look. On your left, Mister Beaufort." Distracted for a moment by trying to play off not remembering what the Blessed are, Futaba does a sick backflip when the vents explode with icy beams, shaking off her rapidly cooled legs a bit before drawing her flaming katana from her pouch to help disperse some of that coldness. While Isaac and Ophrys handle the head, Futaba aims for the vent! She doesn't go for the opening in the vent, though, but further along the vent towards where she can try and guess some of the body might be. "Don't get too hot up there!" She taunts badly while ramming her katana right into and through the vent, flinging herself upwards in the process to ram spear-like legs through the vent to stabilize herself and add some extra stabbing in the process. "Isaac! Keep pulling! Ophrys, whatcha finding in there?"
Starbound Flotilla	Isaac's hand pounds through the vent, snatching towards something that struggles to skitter back. The HEADHUNTER is an old, dessicated piece of human corpse, its vacant and glassy-eyed stare constantly trying to blast cryo-radiation. He can see past it that a second head made a soft rasping cry and retreated in a desperate scramble, while this one almost managed it -- before Futaba's blade slammed in front of it, cutting it off. It headbutts her katana at full speed, reeling back in a daze. Once Isaac's hand is fully around it, and yanks it free in spite of its desperate clinging, it starts shaking and shuddering in his hands, closing its eyes and trying to pull decayed muscles into an exaggerated frown while it curls its little tendrils around its own eyes. (2d6 <6> <3>) Is it... surrendering? Ophrys scans the local network. (1d20 <7>) Besides the leakable script of Blood Countess 10 (stylized as BLOOD X), she finds... a startlingly immaculate digital space, unlike the mess that was in Central. No tangle and mess in the expansive internet-of-things, instead everything is precisely curated and archived and organized. It's like seeing someone's desktop perfectly sorted, it's sort of uncanny. If a local network could smell like a hospital, this one would. Very little here to cover one's footsteps with, though. She can start accessing things with break-ins, or maybe scour for proper access, but a heavy search will be needed to find that data-dump, and soon! Despite the prisine structure, something has burrowed a (now thoroughly cleaned) tunnel through one of the walls, and there's further passage onward through the door past the security checkpoint. Elevators are out of service, but someone even put a sign up for them!
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac frowns...the creature's gesture seems one of surrender, something that a monster wouldn't do. A preditor, maybe, but not a monster. A monster attacks no matter what destroys and eats regardless of its own safety. Only the most intelligent ones can stave off immediate destruction for a greater one... So holding it, he gently lowers it but does not release it. He attempts to show he will not harm it, and that its surrender is taken. "I don't suppose you understand and can speak with me? If you can, would you like to explain why you attacked us without any provocation?" "If you do not attack us, we will not attempt to harm you," despite what it is, Isaac remains gentle. As long as it isn't violent, or shows it has dangerous intentions. If so, then he squeezes. Then regrets it because ew.
Ophrys	Ophrys immediately sanitizes and stores a copy of that film script for later. Blood X, hmm? Short. Punchy. Memorable. Marketable. An agent fond of espionage has no problems with this. She tilts her head, eyes swinging towards Isaac as he dislodges the trap. Tilting the other way, she observes Futaba's sword-and-spike violence. Her attention returns to the contents of the network. After some thought, she opts for the Obvious Route. Pressed for time, there isn't a whole lot of leeway in this contract for the subtle approach. The hacking equivalent of a 'Sorry for the mess' sign is slammed right in the middle of the network hub, followed shortly by the hacking equivalent of ransacking the place for relevant data. Breaking into secure storage, rummaging, discarding, and continuing. She is, of course, after the specific data dump spelled out by Y/N, but also anything that might lead to it in case it's not on the network. To the outside observer she's just standing there. The observant individual might notice text flying unreadably fast behind her eyes.
Futaba Nuki	"Not so fast! Alright, let's...! Uh?" Futaba's excitement at stopping the Headhunter's retreat before it can really get anywhere fades rather quickly when she sees that somewhat pathetic display from creature once Isaac gets it out of there. After yanking her katana and legs out of the vent, Futaba lands besides him to take a closer look at the thing. She almost feels kind of bad now, notwithstanding that whole ice beam thing. Studying its head structure for a bit, she glances at Isaac, then at Ophrys, then reshapes her face to look more like that horrible thing's face before talking in her own voice anyway. "Hey. Is this better? we ain't gonna hurt you if you talk better, alright?" She grins with that Headhunter's face, then leans over towards Ophrys to get a peek at what she's doing. She's not actually sure what Ophrys is doing, but it might make Futaba look smarter if she nods! It does not. In the course of doing that, though, she spots the hole through the wall, and Futaba starts heading down that-a-way. A few steps in, she transforms the rest of her body to look like one of those Headhunters, although there's still a big green leaf on her forehead and her golden bracer-thing worn as a choker of sorts at the 'neck' as she scuttles along that forward passage to keep scouring the area.
Starbound Flotilla	It doesn't seem like the headhunter has any ability to communicate! Most of the prefrontal cortex pulses with unknowable organs, and it seeps a violet-colored fluid onto one's hands. Carefully, it unfurls one tendril to sweep the sticky substance up off Isaac's hand, shoving the slime into its own mouth moments before it seems to come to life. Looks like even its body fluids are capable of hostility, but the main head is trying to not look like it's attacking the man who has its life in his hands. Still; no sign of sentience, or at least it can't seem to communicate with Futaba or Isaac. It at least relaxes when Futaba's face takes on its shape, and if Isaac lets it go, it'll scurry back into the vent without any harm done. Cordner, the Terpsichore sister, speaks up over radio, answering some questions. "Couple of cryo-rad bursts, huh? Those must be headhunters in there. We think of them like gravestones for the Blessed, in a way. You're Infected, then Infested, then Bloated, and then you're gone, but your Headhunter sticks around! Though, sometimes some of the stages get skipped." She makes some thoughtful sounds. "Didn't know that there's some here. But they don't keep a place clean. Anwyay, if they're not out in the open, they're probably hunted by whatever keeps it clean. Keep your eyes out!" Futaba heads down the tunnel. On branches off the path, she can find (1d6 <6>) lots of strange stunt-sets for a movie about fast cars and big guns. Someone has been tunneling through what looks like solid cement, used to encase them as if they were nuclear waste. They're full of stunt-bots, camera drones, and complex set equipment arranged in dramatic circles that have nothing to do with filming. Almost instantly, something notices Ophrys' intrusion. Her virtual presence is swarmed immediately by a half-dozen Ghosts, manifesting in the real world as well; anyone with a digital HUD can see the flickering mess of AR artifacts, and anyone without can see the passing influence of red on screens and the smart-lights. They seem... (2d6 <6> <1>) confused by her. And they're whispering: "Dane? Dane? Dane? DanDane? DDDane?ane? DANE?dane? Dane?e?" "Leave pattern? Leave paLEAVE THE PATTERN NOW?ane? LEAVE?VE?" "DANE? DANE? DANE? SICKNESS WILL FINALLY STO" "WAIT. I'M SCARED!! YOU ARE NOT DANE.SCARED!! HELP!!" All of the stunt-bots in the sets Futaba can see suddenly look up from their deactivated circle. The facade of old actors takes on a horrible purple hue as inner lights go violet. They're running for the lobby, brandishing still-dangerous prop weapons. The Ghosts rush back, cowering in fear for the moment behind the pillars of their immaculate virtual space in the chamber through the doors of the lobby.
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac sighs, oh well. He lets it go because it's...well not harmless, but probably hungry. It was their place, so running into it and then killing it seems wrong. He wipes his hand, even if they'd clean it, he doesn't want that stuff on him more than it has to be. Everything in the room goes really /weird/. "Uh...Ma'am, what's happening..?" he asks, not able to see anything at all. His eyes go wide, and he's not sure what to do. Futaba lets them know that robots are coming at them! So Isaac goes for the door Futaba went through. She's capable of transforming and dancing around, and probably be able to sneak back to them. So Isaac decides to bar the door with whatever is nearby and hold it shut. Failing that, then he himself is in the way, willing to help protect his allies.
Ophrys	Futaba wars of robots charging suddenly. Where she stands, Ophrys reaches up, palming the wall and anchoring to it. Using this, she hoists herself up and upside-down, planting her feet against the ceiling, then crouching to it and laying her wings flat against her back. Having gotten herself out of the way for Isaac and Futaba to contend with stuntbot actors on the loose, she refocuses on the digital space. "A friend of Dane's sent me." "I'll leave once I find what I'm looking for." "We need it to help you." Mostly lies. A grain of truth. Whoever's behind Y/N has connections to the hacker from the previous operation, after all. She honestly has no way of knowing if these digital haunts are the very same people this data cache is meant to assist, though. The mysterious Pattern continues to elude her, and she has no earthly idea what it has to do with these spirits. But knowing Dane? Yeah. She can work with that. "Show me the Heart of the Pattern"
Futaba Nuki	<J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "That used to be a person, then? Oh...! Ew! So whoever dug this tunnel up must've been around them this long, or... A bigger one?" <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "Vermin, then? I see. We're on a bit of a timetable, so forgive us if we don't get all of them." <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "Yeah... And there's a lot of machines down this tunnel, too. I think whoever put them here wanted them to stay here, but..." Holding onto that Headhunter's appearance for a little while longer, Futaba slows down as she sees the circle of seemingly deactivated stunt-bots. Looking arund the set, she strokes her chin with one of those tendrils while trying to suss out if this has anything to do with that one flick the Sister mentioned earlier. Her attention soon goes back to the machine right in front of her, though, as they suddenly spring back to life. "They're coming through!" She warns Isaac and Ophrys as she launches herself towards wall to get out of the way of those purple-hued actor stand-ins. With Isaac trying to blockade them at the entrance to the tunnel and Ophrys recommending disabling rather than complete destruction, Futaba bides her time as she slowly inches in from behind, waiting for the stunt-bots to zero in on Isaac before finally rushing in herself... Still at Headhunter size, still scurrying along with those tendrils. More tendrils start sprouting out of her 'head', though, forming into an array of little whips with steel rods oon the end. Once she gets close enough, the rod-bearing tendrils start whipping around wildly, aiming low to try and break all manner of legs en masse.
Starbound Flotilla	In this case, there wasn't a door to bar. It's just the open, bare-ass tunnel. Luckily, Isaac's size, and maybe the size of his persona as well, or even his earth magic, can likely still block it up, even while the swarm of stuntbots batter at him. They won't be battering too long, since the disguised Futaba has snuck up and disabled many of them. Once it comes time to pass through, it won't be an opening of the floodgates, it'll just be a big, tripping mess, one they can evade fast. Ophrys' search continues even while the AI Ghosts scream and cower. Lights try to explode near the group, and doors shift violently back and forth. Cleaning robots scream down the hallways, then circle uselessly around where the hacker's feet used to be, gushing sterilizing chemicals into a pristine floor. "Dane? Da1906 DAYS SINCE LAST ACCESS.ne?!" "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO COME BACK. WHO ARE YOU. YOU WERE dane dane dane?" "I don't understand. Can you repeat that?" The ghosts aren't helping. But as these Ghosts think about the Heart, it seems like Ophrys gains better access to that memory, the environment shifting in response to their thoughts. The data-dump! The physical storage, at least, is further in. Rush through, hard left, straight through, and past the IT foyer. On cameras, she can see aged security drones struggling to get into place throughout the path. She can also see the dump itself, on cameras. An aged server, a hard disk laden with uncountable films once used to train generative networks. A clear path. If someone can organize this group to crash through the lobby (cleared), the hallways ((1d3 <3>) a heavy twin-autocannon turret at a security checkpoint), the IT foyer ((1d3 <2>) a patrolling flyer drone like back at Central), and then the storage center ((1d3 <2>) a trio of circling flyers), she'll be able to snatch it all at once. There's something about the room that's causing incredible camera distortion though. Nothing that will stop the group from charging the gauntlet, though.
Isaac Beaufort	With Ophrys' guidance, Isaac has the plan to move them to where they need to be. The robots in the way slash and rip at him, but he's far tougher than he has any right to be. Earth magic shapes up around him, attempting to literally bury them and entomb them within rock, as he pushes forward. His movement is slow and methodical, pushing forward while he uses his earth magic to change and redirect the world around him. This aims to provide cover for both Futaba and Ophrys, and give them a more direct line of movement. If they can keep the security drones off him, then he can provide them protection and cover.
Ophrys	"That will do for now." Ophrys relays the route she'd pieced together through the camera feeds, hoping that a dismissal will calm down the ghosts in the network, but fully expecting it not to. Clinging to the ceiling like this, she instead commits to a 'Spotter' style support role. Pivoting from the data storage network to the security network, she fixates her attention on-- the mounted autocannon turret, which seems at a glance to be the most likely to have a hardline connection and also the most immediately dangerous. At the least, she hopes to shut it down; but if she can seize control of it from here... She glances down at the frantic cleaning robots below her, allowing a laugh, "Oh, at least you tried. But you're doing such a fine job keeping the place tidy, I can't fault you for that."
Futaba Nuki	Springing back to her full size once the stunt-bots are taken care of, Futaba holds her hands up towards Isaac and Ophrys as if waiting for... The hand slap. And then it's time to head onwards once more! She lets out an awed 'ooooh' noise when the environment starts moving around, not quite understanding how or why it's doing so, but simply assuming it's the result of either Isaac or Ophrys doing something she can't quite understand. <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Ma'am, I need to know where we're going." <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "Oh yeah... I mean, sure, we're clearing this place out, but you got any priorities besides 'bust everything up just enough'? Like a... I dunno." <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "What're those magic hacker words... Mainframes? Leylines?" <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Well...if it's a path we need...I'll make the path, you'll have to cover me." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Well...if it's a path we need...I'll make the path, you'll have to cover me." <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "Yes, I have it. Sorry for the delays." <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "It's off-network. Server rack past the IT room. Through that space and to the left. Mind the security checkpoints, though." <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "Huhuhu... That much, I can totally do. And then we can pick up the whole rack, I bet!" <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "Just the hard drive is all we'll need. It'll be much easier to get it back to the city that way." Ophrys feeds them info on what they're going to run into, and that's enough for Futaba to take advantage of the coverage provided by Isaac. Letting him rush in ahead, she follows up not too far behind him with all six of her arms (four of which are just coming out of the same shoulder on one side). She focuses mostly on the flying machines, whipping her hands forward to wrap around two drones at a time before slamming them into each other like single-use cymbals.
Starbound Flotilla	A hardline connection it does have! And easy to find, given how pristine everything is. Ophrys reaches into its code, and... (1d20 <13> + 2) finds that her control is firm, albeit it'll demand all her attention. She may well be able to take down some of those Flyers, though most are inside the IT storage area, and the autocannons don't have the accuracy to blast through the walls without risking the storage. It'll need some work to get through this, for Isaac. Pushing forward rather than back means that he never has to deal with foes from more than one direction, but unfortunately, it means that he has to cut across the solid concrete to get to the hallways from the tunnels (like this: https://i.imgur.com/cGh7roR.png). Luckily, Isaac is seemingly all about cutting through things and reshaping the earth, and as far as Cy is concerned, concrete is earth. Maybe on some level that's kind of awful. Those fancy arms smash apart the flyers as they desperately blast at Isaac. Futaba evades them behind Isaac, and since the autogun turret is subdued, even the stunned drones don't get far. It's touch-and-go, but a fast, violent approach gets it done. Cowering Ghosts shiver and screech in the data storage center, but they don't strike back right now at least. Unharmed, they aren't driven into a corner yet. One problem. The Heart of the Pattern is pulsing on the storage there, and it's flickering to every nearby screen. It looks like some kind of massive growth of violet mold has overtaken the server, coming from the data storage racks. Screens all around in the area are displaying the contents of the AI-generated holoflicks interspersed with the patterns from Dane's apartment, slightly warped versions of popular actors engaging in comedy, drama, and ultraviolence. Each scene seems to end with every actor contracting some strange disease, and collapsing dead. Scene after scene: A man walks up to a woman at the airport and hugs her with heartfelt love, before he and all the extras start to keel over, violet rashes on their faces. A blast of violet with yellow hexagonal shapes. A woman with a huge gun interrogates a suspect who collapses, bleeding violet from the eyes and ears. A blast of violet and searing sick green bars. A surgeon carefully performs a heart transplant, but in the middle of it, violet bugs begin to scurry under his skin. A blast of violet and neon-maroon checkerboards. Security footage of Ophrys, Isaac, and Futaba entering the lobby, (1d20 <19>) then swiftly falling to their knees as their jaws force themselves so wide their heads split apart in a burst of purple fluid. A screen full of pure violet. Security footage of Ophrys, Isaac, and Futaba smashing apart the server rack, (1d20 <3>) while flowers start to bloom from their eyes and ears. A screen full of pure violet. It shows the trio walking to Cynergy Water & Power's main treatment plant, (1d20 <8>) and biting at their own limbs viciously, spilling violet fluids into Cy's main water supply. And then again. Over and over and over now. Only after the data storage is unplugged will both observers realize: Wait, none of that footage was real. It was all patterns, trying to figure out some way to get a foothold. Ophrys' Locksmith must have been blocking it out, and Isaac will find that the memories of the needless cruelty can fade rapidly into vagueness. There aren't more countermeasures to stop them from taking it and leaving now, though.
Isaac Beaufort	Isaac gets the group through to the final room, not making any second thoughts about the fact that concrete and earth are the same things in Cy. This place is /awful/, and it sucks to be here the longer he is here. He just wants to not be here anymore, and somehow try and leave this place somewhat better than he started. The images on the screen catch his eyes. He isn't sure /what/ it's trying to do, watching the actors, and the various TV shows, all with the same horror happening. Then it happens to them. That can't be right, they don't have anything growing on them..? He tries to fight the influence, but the moment it becomes unplugged, rather he unplugs it or someone else does, he shakes his head. The images quickly fade from it. "What in the heck was that..?"
Ophrys	Experimentally, Ophrys swings the autocannon around, checking what it can aim at. Taking shots at drones where it feels safe to do so without risking the others. Once she is satisfied with it, though, she wraps her digital fingers around the autocannon's kernel and rips it out. As the machine's operating system crashes, she backs out of it and returns to the camera server in a more idle, observational state. Sparing once last glance at the cleaning robots puttering around beneath her, she scuttles across the ceiling after the other two, monitoring them through the grainy footage of the server room camera as she approaches. The lack of geiger readings in her adaptation kit suggests her guess about radiation is wrong. Based on what she's hearing on the radio-- --Ophrys drops from the ceiling, landing in the server room's doorframe. The LockSmith warning pops up in her HUD again, blocking out the offending images with 'You have been protected' overlays. From the door, the cyborg produces a chakram; a circular throwing blade; and hurls it in an arc directly for the server's electrical feed.
Futaba Nuki	So much violence followed by so much violet. Futaba doesn't know what to make of that violet mold, but she can at least guess that it's not a good thing considering what she had seen of just about everything earlier. The stunt-bots, the Headhunter, and this? It certainly can't be a coincidence, but she still can't figure out what it's all supposed to mean until she steps close enough to the servers to actually see the visuals on the nearby screens. <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "This purple stuff... Is that in us right now? It's so..." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "No." <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "'Purple stuff'? Are you seeing something I'm not? It might be more of that nonsense pattern from the apartment." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "I can see it too, something growing out of the server...showing us...being infected." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "I'm...I'm not fighting anything off." <J-IC-Scene> Cordner says, "Mmmm... No, I definitely steered us around the big nano concentrations, and your immunity metrics were high. If you're seeing violet, it's psychic effects. Your brain trying to process a, ah, blessed object." <J-IC-Scene> Ophrys says, "Cut the power! I'm rejoining you two right now." <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "It's... Gross. Cool, but gross. Kind of like something wants us to do these things, even if we wouldn't?" <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "Right...the power..." <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, ".. Oh! Yeah, that makes sense." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort says, "How is...how is this cool?" <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki says, "Cool like a horror movie! Really weird, though, because it's us in there, but we're... Not in there." <J-IC-Scene> Isaac Beaufort makes a uneasy sound. <J-IC-Scene> Cordner says, "It is, isn't it? Clumsily handled or badly resisted, the nano influence causes some... truly debilitating states. But the things it does are novel. They're artistic ways of being human that most humans never are -- it's just still figuring out the part of that where you get to stay alive." <J-IC-Scene> Cordner says, "It can be horrifying, but it can also be a little spiritual." Thankfully, Isaac's sense keeps Futaba from just slicing through anything with her katana. She quickly gets her hand out of her pouch, then keeps staring at the monitors for a while longer until the power is cut. She shivers briefly, then coughs into her hand and looks around with a feigned look of nonchalance at the whole matter. She's totally not grossed out by all that continued gore imagery. "Looks like we've got this cleared out, then! Uh. But first..." Digging into her pouch again, Futaba takes out a small stack of crumpled up takeout napkins and just starts swiping them over servers before starting to collect them into an oversized hand for safe-carrying.
Starbound Flotilla	The AI stay scattered. It was an agonizingly long time to get this one done, but it's been done. The power to the server is cut abruptly, making the hard drive emit a whistling noise outside human hearing range. A scream of pain? A confirmation of completion? Who knows. In any case, that hard drive covered in violet mold can be extracted. The client, thankfully, provided a sealed system to connect it to, something coincidentally biohazard-safe (more as an incidental benefit of mass production than any foresight) that can get the data where it needs to go via a remote connection. The violet mold churns silver. Tiny tendrils, like the one on the Headhunter, seek around, trying to plunge into human flesh, but likely finding no purchase before the sealing. Far away at the front of the building, Cordner skips her way into the lobby, taking a seat behind the security desk, a headless skeleton at each side. She calls out. "Headhunters! Pssssspspsps! C'mere! I brought snacks! Come on out, good boys! C'mon, c'mon, cuties!" She's already busy trying to make friends with the local nanophreaks. When the team leaves, she'll rejoin only long enough to guide them back out, cheerful and happy with the day's work. The client's call is distorted. They sound like, every ten seconds or so, they're experiencing some jolt of pain, or some kind of severe jumpscare. The frantic, whispering voice proclaims that he's got the anti-pattern and he's putting it out to the clan, fast enough to make sure at least most survive. A lot of lives are owed to this operation, which you wouldn't be able to tell if you just judged it by his wavering, paranoid voice. He's busy watching the patterns himself, is the easy conclusion one can draw. The clan may now be safe through his exported cure, but the man himself is busy bingeing one of the worst brain-poisons there is as if it were some kind of addictive drug.