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Eclipse Phase (Private)

[Hey, where's the 'report player' option? Because I'm tired of the chat spam. Buggies are almost ready to go, but I feel like we actually need to get some use out of them aside from just ‘load the NPCs in, and probably put the data drive with them where it’ll be safe, then let them wait it out until we call in our evac’. Abby, do you see any more than the one garage we know of? Any other external access points? Is the hangar that we’re supposed to get picked up at maybe accessible from outside? Going there by buggy is gonna be way easier than brawling it out. It’d mean skipping some optional BS, but remember: They’re NPCs. Optional BS is all it is.]
 
[Okay, so it took me a little while, but I'm in. I see at least one garage, it took a little work, but it's unlocked now. We still need that encryption key, and we do have one more drive to recover here. So here's my suggestion. I head for the garage with the survivors, and wait there with them and Mach. You guys head to the Central Plant and recover that last drive, and maybe the other survivors. Sound good to everyone?]

Abby stops and thinks for a second, before turning to the survivors, "Hey, what can you guys tell me about Mehetan Noorzai?"
 
Outpost Sigma - Atrium​

The immense bulkhead door to the tram tunnel - intended to seal in case of some kind of atmospheric breach - closes and locks down with remarkable speed; anyone tuned in to the cameras inside the tunnel will note distressed grunting and bellowing, as well as intensified skittering sounds.

The group of survivors turn to face Abby having registered her question, but all of them look distinctly uncomfortable as they try to find the words for an answer.
"Mehetan?" Wednesday asks, a distinct note of worry in her voice.
"He, um, he's the containment specialist for outpost sigma," Hannah answers. "He's usually stationed in the ops center, sleeves a combat-equipped slitheroid morph.
"He knows his way around habtech and infosec systems," Wednesday says. "I think he's ex-PMC."
"I can confirm that," Lief says. "He's got extensive combat training and he knows his way around the security systems here."
"Let's hope he can tell the difference between us and...the others," Khadaafi says. "He's as paranoid as he is ruthless."

Rushing Jaws​

[Abby's plan sounds good to me, we should get moving. I don't like the sound of this Mehetan guy though, he could be trouble. Y'all stay sharp over there, eh?]
 
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Vidar

[Mark. I for one cannot not wait to be banned from Break Out Crisis the best selling game about the fall. However I also want to win, so I'm down for Abbey's plan. The only thing is- Mark do you want to come with us and be a danger kite or you good with the buggies?I kinda wanna swap devin out for the danger kite- don't hate me Devin]

He looked at devin apologetically.
 
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Mach Infinity​

[Hard same, report me too. But I'm down for Abby's plan, as-is. Because I like driving, and I'm very, very good at it. You can keep Devin.]

Mach didn't have anyone to look at apologetically right now, but he did get done fixing the buggy. (Unless it hasn't been long enough.)
 
Vidar

[for sure. I hope you and the dune buggies have a wonderful marriage.]
"Man, I can't even trade you for a corn chip," Vidar complained. He sheathed his sordTM and headed out to bother Rushing Jaws before Devin could couch up the nerve to yell at him for his treason.
 
Devin

Devin gestured to himself like he was both Vana White and the prize, and said, "I'm worth at least two corn chips. Excuse you. Besides, you'd've missed me the second you had to talk to somebody."
 
Vidar

"I tried to get you out of fighting Mr. Mehetan and all you want to do is rub two corn chips together. Don't say I never tried to do anything for you- Watch out for friendo here, guys," He said pointing at the spurs growing ever outwards from the corpse in the atrium for his team mates and the npcs.
 
Rushing Jaws​

"Okay, looks like we got our plan. Viddy, Devin, we're the squad of three going to the central plant, let's gear up and get moving."
"What about us?" Hannah asks on behalf of the group.
"Y'all are gonna load up with Abby and Mach in the buggies we got. You'll be safer out there while we secure the site."
"...okay," Hannah says, reassuring herself with Rushing Jaws' words.
"We got our plan, now let's get to it - unless y'all like being in this sim game."
 
Outpost Sigma - Central Plant
Rushing Jaws, Devin Murphy, and Vidar Crosswinds​

“Okay, if I’m reading the layout right, we’ve got one direct way in that’s been converted into a killzone but a bunch of doors that Abby can spring open for us,” Rushing Jaws says to Vidar and Devin as they make their way down into the outposts’ facilities. “How do we want to handle this?”
“Carefully,” Vidar said, “Are the borgs still in position since we’ve shut down the tram doors?”
“Good question,” Rushing Jaws says, pulling up the security feeds on his entoptics: those of you joining him will see the borgs still in roughly the same positions they’ve been, with two of them keeping guns trained on the corridor they’ve converted into a killzone and the other two nursing nanofabricators. The central plant is large enough that they can’t cover every door, but they look dug into positions to suggest they aren’t expecting approaches from other angles than the one they can shoot at.
If vidar did not feel how he felt about maps he would check how to get in to the other doors. Instead he said, “Do we wanna deal with them or Mehetan first- cause weren't we right by the ops door earlier, when we were at the labs?”
“Could do, only I think ops center doors are still under lockdown unless Abby wants to spring ‘em loose for us. I dunno enough about Mehetan to want to pick a fight with him just yet, personally, but I’m open to suggestions.”
“Fair. but have you considered opening doors...by force?”
Rushing Jaws has a chuckle at that: “you hiding some superthermite charges in your pouches there? I’ll blast us through those doors alright but I’d need proper explosives to do it.”
Vidar points at the mini missiles, “Everyone guards their doors and windows- no bodies guards their regular walls. You just...look up the right spot. And make a door. I’m not saying it’s a good idea, I’m just saying its a thought.”
Rushing Jaws checks the underbarrel launcher: “I got one ready to fire and another three behind it, and I gotta wonder if blasting a wall out with a micromissle is a good idea versus saving it for a combat-equipped slitheroid or whatever the hell else might be running around down here.”
“I didn't say it was a good idea. I just said its an option.”
“Fair enough,” Rushing Jaws says, noting it as an option.


The walk down the corridor is somewhat tense, but with the security feeds they are able to keep well ahead of any threats - not that there seem to be many left alive along their path. The three of them arrive in front of the door opposite that which leads into the crew quarters - one that is supposed to be under lockdown.
“Wanna try springing this open or move over to deal with the borgs head-on?” Rushing Jaws asks.
“Well we do have devin we could try to negotiate, but I got a feeling about that- I’d like to avoid that kill zone if we could. But you do have missiles -”
“I get the feeling they’re not looking to negotiate,” Devin added. “Let’s not walk right into the blast zone, huh?”
“That’s a start,” Rushing Jaws says. “Whether we negotiate, ambush, or just pop in for the drive before getting out, we should take one of the other doors; even if we go hot, they won’t be expecting us to hit ‘em from another angle and we might be able to wipe ‘em out quick. What are we thinking?”
Vidar took a few beats listening to Penny thoroughly describe the layout of the base are they were coming up on. And he had to be honest- turning spoken description into an understanding of three dimensional space was not his forte.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about just popping open the doors- These doors in particular,” He said motioning at the door to the recycling center, maybe they’re rigged, maybe they don’t where they say they go- but I have one hell of a hunch. I’m back on team cut our own door into the ops center.”
On a hunch, Rushing Jaws pulls up the security feeds, flipping through them to find the central plant doors. Finding the one that they stand on the
other side of, Rushing Jaws looks carefully through the feed for anything even remotely explosive-shaped, not wanting to put anything past the worker borgs. “I don’t see any kind of explosive traps on the doors, but that don’t mean you’re wrong,” Rushing Jaws says after a moment to check all the feeds. As he passes by the workshop feed, something catches his trained eye and makes Rushing Jaws double back to the camera looking down on the nanofabricators, recognizing what he didn’t before: “Well fuck me diving, they’re fabbing up superthermite charges in there…”
“But is it rigged up yet?”
“Not as far as I can tell, those look fresh off the fabber. Hard to say what they want ‘em but I count four charges, which would get us through a wall shaped properly and really mess up some unfortunate bastard’s day, whether by blowing up their stuff or their morph.”
Vidar looked between RJ and Devin and said, “It would be a shame if someone were to sneak some super thermite behind their defenses.”
“Very unfortunate. For them,” Devin agreed.
“Looks like we’ll have to liberate it from them,” Rushing Jaws says aloud, while over TacNet: [Hey Abby, can you get a door for us?]
After a moment, Abby’s muse Proxy informs the three of you that a digital alarm protecting the door has been disarmed and that the door can be opened without alerting the borgs.
Ah- there it was, his bad feeling about the doors. That was an old trick he’d seen more than once- it was better than being rigged to blow. Vidar opens the door and slips in before anyone can bicker about it and then realizes his error quickly. This was not the same room the fabricators were in- this was the room was data cache. There went his plan to blow them up with their own dynamite. He thought the other two in on it -He looked back over his shoulder at the other two- he should have been more specific and less--- everything about how communicated-- before he headed in. He went for the data cache like he’d had a functioning purpose all along. Penny repeated her verbal instructions for the lay out while he frowned. He got as close as he dared to the entrance to the work shops to see what he could see.
The door opens silently to allow a view into the workshops, The work lights above the space provide a great deal of illumination to allow a good view into it. Rows of nanofabricators and worktables with tools on the end of long, spindly arms for precise manipulation are lined up, their surfaces variably neat or cluttered. The central plant seems fine compared to many of the other modules, with no trace of spurs or any sign that the chaos has spread within. At the center of the workshop are four desktop nanofabricators, all of which are active and minded by two of the worker borgs. Four of the tables on the westernmost side of the room have been overturned by the west door, with two of the worker borgs on lookout. The morphs they sleeve are identical to one another, made from a cookie-cutter template and all with the same look of steeled determination to outlast this nightmare.


[TacNet chat till we sort these borgs out] Rushing Jaws says to Devin and Vidar. [If we wanted to take em out, we should do it now while we got surprise. What are y’all thinkin?]
[They look skittish,] Devin said. [I wonder if we could talk ‘em down.]
[Think you can get ‘em to talk to you without shooting you first?] Rushing Jaws asks.
Devin turned to Vidar and asked, [You want to do ‘get help’?]
[I don’t think you’re big enough to throw me, pal.]
[I’m not going to throw you. You just have to pretend to be dying. And then if they try and kill me, like, stab them.]
[This- this is the best or the worst plan. That one guy, way at the end-] Vidar marks him in tha AR, [Is named Haruki. He harassed the shit of Leif and lorrisa who were also nervous as hell- I’m thinking it was a mutual miscommunication fuck up and we could use them for added believability. Probably don’t want to lie too much- like if you get far enough you should say that, you know, we are here for xfiles reasons ect.]
[The FBI sent us. Got it,] Devin said. [You want me to punch you in the face?]
[No!] He sent, and made a what-the-hell face. He took the tip of his sword and pressed the teeny tiniest scratch into his forehead until it bleed a little, as head wounds are want to do. He moved back into the room towards devin, [You wanna do this here in the recycling room or out in the hall? RJ we gotta hide you some place.]
[Right, stabbing yourself in the face is way better. Probably more places for RJ to hide there?]
[I mean I can hang back in here while y’all try to get help from the borgs, I’d rather not be too far away if shit goes feeding frenzy.]
[I’d rather you weren’t either,] Devin said. [C’mon Viddy, give me your best dying man.]
Vidar shook out his hands, sheathed his sword, stretched his left shoulder and sent; [I need to channel my best ophelia-] And then swooned into his general direction.
Devin yelped involuntarily and caught him, his knees folding a little under Vidar’s weight. He said, “Oof,” and adjusted how Vidar had fallen on him, and then [I am not carrying you, bro.]
[I’m unconscious you’re just gona have to figure it out, idk.]
[This is punishment, isn’t it.] Vidar wasn’t really that much bigger than his current morph, but Vidar’s belonged to a fury with a lot more muscle. Devin dragged him across the floor, and shouted, “Help!” and didn’t have to try very hard to sound out of breath. Or panicky. “Haruki! Somebody! Help!”


As Rushing Jaws watches from the TacNet feeds, the four borgs startle, two of them trying to turn their guns toward the door as Vidar and Devin turn the corner and the other two rushing for their weapons.
“What the fuck!?” One of them at the closer nanofabricator says.
“I thought you set an alarm!” The one sleeved by Haruki accuses.
“I did!” That borg shouts back.
“Don’t fucking move!” The borg that isn’t Haruki on the barricade shouts, his gun trained on Devin and Vidar. “Give us one good reason we shouldn’t just shoot you now? You fuckers infected, huh?”
“Because that’s rude?” Devin said, looking at Haruki with big eyes. “My friend got hit on the face, and we’re just trying to get out of here. We don’t want any trouble. You don’t want any trouble. We don’t want to get infected, you don’t want to be infected. We don’t want to be here. You don’t want to be here. If we’re not trying to shoot each other we can all make that work and get what we want a lot easier than if we shoot each other.”
None of the borgs expected Devin’s initial response, all of them taken aback by its blunt directness. Two of them look up from their sights for just a few seconds before training their weapons back on Devin, but no one moves to harm him.
“How do we know you’re not infected-”
“Shut the fuck up, Micah,” the borg closest to you barks at the one behind him. “This outpost is a closed system, and I know everyone here - but I don’t know who
are, so start fuckin’ talkin’.”
Devin made his best effort to hold up his hands without dropping Vidar. “Raja Actual sent a transmission out when shit started going sideways,” he said. “We got it and came to try and sort shit out. We have Leif and Lorisa and Hannah and Wednesday and a couple of other people with my hacker headed to the evac site. I’m Devin, and this is Vidar, and our buddy RJ somewhere behind us. And you are?”
The expression of the borg closest to you softens a bit: “my name’s Aoife-”
“Why the fuck’d you save those two fucks-”
“Haruki, shut the fuck
You went and got yourself shot, you fucking idiot,” Aoife says to Haruki. “So, you’re...what, private? Transatlantic? TransNat? Far Eastern Bloc?”
“Aoife how do we know they’re not infected??” The other borg by the barricade asks, their aim unwavering and their finger drifting toward the trigger.
“You see spurs growing out of ‘em?” Aoife asks. “You see ‘em melting any of this shit?”
“Maneula looked pretty normal too, till she started all this shit,” the last borg retorts.
“I promise I haven’t let anything growing spurs bite me,” Devin said. “Or Vidar. We’re deeply opposed to that. And we’re private.”
“Yeah?” Aoife asks, “which corp?”
[Direct Action would be the obvious choice, or you could say we’re contractors on an anonymous bid] Rushing Jaws transmits to Devin over Tacnet. [Somehow i don’t think they’ll buy that we’re in a sim game tournament]
[No, that one’s a good way to die in a sim game,] Devin agreed. Outloud he said, “Direct Action,” because he figured that would have fewer follow up questions attached.


Aoife looks at you, the slightest crook of an eyebrow: “You’re a little more personable than most Direct Action types I’ve ever met.”
[Aoife ain’t fuckin wrong] Rushing Jaws comments.
“Wait what the fuck-”
“Micah!” Aoife says, turning around to shout at the borg behind her. “Everyone, just- put your guns down. If Direct Action’s here to clean up this fuckin mess, then it makes a fuck of a lot more sense to help them then to try to get in a firefight with them.”
Hearing it from Aoife seems to help the point land, and the other three guns drift down and away from Devin and Vidar.
“I’m in PR,” Devin added cheerfully. “A dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Anyway, you guys got a band-aid or an ice pack for Vidar here?”
“C’mon and bring your buddy over here,” Aoife says, gesturing to Micah to clear one of the tables: he takes the superthermite charges off of one worktable and gestures to Devin to carry Vidar over and lay him out on it.
[I want my oscar] Vidar beamed as he let them pile him onto the table like so much meat.
“Let me take a look at ‘im,” the last borg says, squinting at Vidar as a rough hand takes hold of Vidar’s face. He swipes a thumb over the wound, nodding to one of the others - who grabs a swab from the first-aid kit where Haruki had been set up. The borg takes the swab and runs it over the wound, clearing away the blood but the antibacterial solution stinging the self-inflicted cut. “Looks worse than it is, typical for head wounds. Watch your step, huh?” The borg says, giving Vidar a slap on his face before walking off. Vidar startles and swears creatively in norwegian at the slap but manages to pull of his act of I just got slapped awake after hitting my head.
“Vadim, Micah, get on the barricades,” Aoife orders: the two of them squint at her, but obey, taking up places at the makeshift defenses. Turning to you, Aoife asks: “So, Direct Action - what’s the plan to get us all out of here alive?”
“We got an evac coming,” Vidar says, “But we got to get the encryption key from ops- also our pal RJ is in route.”
Devin added, “We borrowed the buggies out of the garage to get to the hangar.”


[Guess that’s my cue!] Rushing Jaws beams, weapon down as he turns the corner and enters slowly.
“That must be RJ,” Aoife says, looking over Devin and Vidar’s shoulders. The face of her borg morph lights up with inspiration: “hey guys, this just got a lot easier.”
“Assuming we can trust them?” Vadim asks, eyeing Rushing Jaws warily as he trots up to Vidar and Devin.
“Seven on one sounds like helluv better odds than four on one, especially if three of them are Direct Action,” Aoife counters him, turning back to regard the squad of three: “the ops center doors are locked down, but we’ve got enough explosives here to get us through...only we were hoping to save them in case we ran into any more of those...things…”
“Our tech person locked down the tram tunnel, the beasties are contained for now,” Vidar said.
“No shit?” Micah asks.
“That ain’t all of ‘em,” Haruki says, a tremble in his voice, “there’s something else they were keeping in those labs, something that got out and went for the ops center…”
“We were gonna try making a move on it once these charges finished cooking up, try hacking our way through one of the doors before having to resort to the charges so we got more of ‘em for whatever it was Haruki saw,” Aoife explains. “You shutting ‘em in the tram tunnel is good news for us, only there could be more of them in there.”
“Abby should be able to help with the door,” Devin said. “More dynamite for the nasty boys that way.”
“Wait wait, the other said that your security chief mehetan, was hold up in ops- you saying he’s infected or that there’s something in there with him- what exactly did you see?”
“I...didn’t really get a good look at it? The things with the limbs were out first, but I thought i saw it eat through its door before...slithering away…”
“I’d be surprised if it was still alive over there, if Mehetan’s got any say in the matter,” Aoife says. “I don’t know what he did before showing up here, but I’m pretty sure he could take down a warbot by himself - and he’s got one tanked up morph.”
“I have pretty bad luck so I’m not gonna count on it,” Vidar said.
[Hey, Marc, Abby, we just got word that there is a third contaminant at play and likely locked in the ops center with Mehetan. So keep those peepers popped. Might just want to assume the worst cause this is a simulated situation and all that.]
 
Per the team’s instructions, the survivors all moved around the spurs in the atrium and headed to the garage. They all seemed vaguely worried about the situation, but willing to trust them enough to help them. Abby followed them into the garage as Mach completed his checks of the damaged buggy’s replaced systems, where the survivors loaded into the vehicles and left the drivers seats unoccupied for Abby and Mach to each take a buggy. Khadaafi, Balog and Lief piled into the repaired buggy, while Hannah, Wednesday and Lorisa took the undamaged one.
“So,” Abby said, “which buggy is mine?”
Mach gave a shrug “Doesn’t matter, they’re both working fine. Just one looks more beat-up than the other.”
“Cool. Uh. I’ll take this one.” Abby pointed to the undamaged buggy and climbed into the driver’s seat.
Mach settled into the seat, hooking directly into the buggy so he could assume direct control. And because, awesome as fitekite was, its little legs weren’t quite long enough to reach the pedals. “So Abby, how good a driver are you? Think you’re up for a race?”
Abby nervous chuckled and shook her head. “Oh wait. You’re serious? No. I think I can turn this on. Probably even drive it in a straight line.”
“You want to do what?” Balog asked Mach, shock and terror clear in her voice. “Are you crazy? You want to race on the Lunar surface when we’re trying to get out of here alive!?”
“Okay, firstly, I’m a fucking professional, and time is of the essence. Besides, putting it as a race instead of a life-or-death thing is way chiller. Secondly, Abby, you seriously don’t know how to drive?... Okay, I know Hannah can’t drive, and if Wednesday could’ve done it, she would’ve. So, anyone else: Can you drive? Like, at least at a basic ‘barely passed driver’s ed’ level of driving?”
“I don’t know about professional driver level, but I earned my license back on Earth,” Lief said, a nervous chuckle following the statement.
“I did a bit of Lunar driving,” Wednesday said. “I could do it.”
“I could drive if I had to,” Balog said. “I’m not crazy enough to try stunt driving on this terrain.”
“Okay Wednesday, why was Haley driving you around, then?”
“Excuse me?? My name is Hannah! And we-we were being chased! I made a choice!”
“We, em, we were in a rush,” Wednesday sheepishly said over the radio, a nervous tremble in her voice.
“... Okay, Wednesday is my pick. Also, let’s shuffle things around: If Abby’s not driving, I want her in my car. Means you guys can take your time while we rush straight to the end. Heck, if you guys want, you can decide for yourselves who’s driving y’all.”
Abby shrugged, and climbs out of the buggy. “Sounds alright to me. One question though, Mach. You’re not a hedgehog uplift secretly, are you?”
“... I am NOT gonna say it.”
“Wait, so who do you want going with you?” Khadaafi asks Mach.
“... Well, You didn’t say you could drive. And neither did… Lorisa? You two. Yeah, that’s my picks.”
“Oh, okay,” they heard Lorisa say over the radio; Khadaafi remained in the buggy with Mach as Balog and Leif stepped out and headed to the other one, trading places with Abby and Lorisa. Everyone found their seats and piled in, the buggies standing by for surface travel.
“Um, this is Lief, I’ll be doing the driving for our buggy,” Lief said over the comms. “I think I’m going to take it nice and easy though if that’s alright. Shall we go?”
“Yeah, we’ll make sure the door’s open for ya.” said Mach as the garage cycled, and the door opened. Then he revved the engine.
“I hope you buckled your seatbelts.” was the last thing he said before he proceeded to do what he did best: Drive like a goddamn speed demon. He didn’t need to push the buggy to maximum speed, or drift, or play eurobeat over the car’s internal radio. But he did. And refused to make any apologies.

The cratered surface of Luna passed by in a blur, too fast for anyone but Mach and his Kite’s enhanced vision to resolve clearly as he takes hard turns and drives recklessly fast across the five hundred meters between the garage they departed and the garage they arrived at, the journey taking a mere seven minutes thanks to the speed with which Mach drove. As the buggy pulled up to the garage bay door built into the hangar, automated systems pinged the buggy’s approach and the garage door slowly began to open.
“Ehm, hello friends!” Lief said over the radiocomm. “We’ll, ah, we’ll be some time yet. Seems that driving out on the surface isn’t exactly my forte so - gotta take it nice, and ah, careful whoa-!”
Mach heard something like the buggy’s weight shift on the regolith, a sound that is distinct only to his practiced, artificial ears.
“We’re fine!” Leif quickly said on the radio. “It’s, ah, going to be slow going for us but we’re alright!”
He could hear the others in the buggy beginning to argue, the volume steadily rising until Lief ceased transmitting.
The door to the garage was now open, the lights inside low but with guide-lights flashing to help find the way down the tunnel bored into the regolith and into the hangar’s garage bay. The drive in is uneventful, the door beginning to close as soon as the buggy passed the threshold and sealing, the atmospheric cycling systems engaging to equalize pressure to the rest of the ops center. Within minutes the process was complete, and the atmosphere was safe.
Mach was… Disappointed. Did no-one know how to drive, post-fall? Fuck. The hell happened to driver’s ed?
“I’ll check ahead. Maybe I can find something to distract Metz.”
Was all he said before he got out and flew off. He tried to take it slow and sneaky at first, but once he realized this part of the facility was quiet, and that one of the hangars had astromechs… He started to have ideas. Too bad his first one was a dud. He thought he could spray paint the astromechs and make them a whole lot freakier, but… Security cameras? Really? Shit, if Metz was looking, he’d know it was Mach’s doing… Hm. Shit. But he knew these mechs had welders… Maybe…
[Abby, do you think you can get a map, take the door controls, and rig up these astrocubes? We need Metz out of the way, and I’m thinking we can seal him into a dead-end room or a two-door hallway if we play our cards right.]
[Hey, Marc, Abby, we just got word that there is a third contaminant at play and likely locked in the ops center with Mehetan. So keep those peepers popped. Might just want to assume the worst cause this is a simulated situation and all that.] Vidar transmits directly over TacNet from within the outpost.
[Oh joy. More bad news.] Abby messaged back, while doing her best to struggle for control of the doors with Mehetzan. “HAH! Take THAT, Mehetzan! No one bests Abigail Hammond at hacking!”
There was a short pause, then Abby realized she should actually respond to Mach. [Oh, hey, I can do those things. Also, uh. Mehetan probs knows we’re here.]
[Fuck me, we might not have a lot of time before he rushes us. I can program enough to rig the cubebots on my own, but the doors are on you.] Mach said on the tac, jacking into one of the automechs to rig it up. And… What the fuck, why was it so complicated? Was the security permissions just THAT complex? Or was this a different model than the one he used to have, back in the day? Did the Crisis programmers even know what the fuck the internals on one of these things looked like? He didn’t know, he’d cuss out any of those programmers he saw for ten thousand reasons already, he just had to get this done. Even going at max speed, it still ended up being a solid 12 minutes of programming… Damn it. He’d have to do door 2 himself. At least he found a mini-welder during his scramble for spray paint earlier.
In the meantime, Abby started on the doors, which took more effort than expected. She failed her first attempt, but managed to pull it off on the second try with the help of the Grim and Māzǔpó. Fortunately, they were done right around the same time as Mach.
 
Outpost Sigma - Ops Center​

Your muses direct you to your TacNet feeds, where Abby is able to quickly sync up the security feeds to her own mesh inserts before setting up a display for the rest of you. As before, the cameras and feeds are divided into each of the major sections of the outpost, allowing you a view into the beleaguered ops center's various facilities...

Level 3: Hangar​

Having already been scouted out by Marcus, the security cameras that grant you a view of the hanger show the same, dimly lit and immense open space designed to accommodate a single Small Landing and Orbital Transit Vehicle in its hangar bay. The hangar's immense bay has been divided into two sections, with the one Marcus is in pressurized and the other depressurized - a single immense door shut airtight to hold in the atmosphere. The space on the other side of the door is empty, the roof out to the Lunar surface closed but with no atmosphere inside the receiving chamber. Doors to the elevators leading down into the facility are located at the far end of the main chamber from the one locking out the vacuum, as is the stairwell.

There is little to note about the hangar bay beyond what Marcus had already found: four automech droids are present, one of them active and standing by for Marcus' instruction and the other three in standby mode. The worktables along the far wall are well-stocked with tools and supplies awaiting a ship to use them on, and there seems to be no sign of any struggle reaching the hangar bay.

The buggy garage is much like the one at the far end of the outpost, although dug a bit deeper into the regolith. The layout and setup of the garage is identical, with most of the tools in place and feedstock for a specially configured desktop cornucopia machine. All three of them are currently pressurized, with only one occupied by the buggy in which Abby and the survivors are seated. There is no sign to indicate where the buggies have gone.

Level 2: Operations​

Operations is split into four main facilities: auxiliary life support, long range comms, mesh support, and resleeving. Two halls at the south-east and south-west end lead to the central plant and the bioscience labs respectively, the latter doors still on lockdown but the former opened by Abby's efforts. The south door leads out to the tram atrium, but peeking on the cameras shows little other than a sealed door and an inert tram. The far-west side of the floor looks to the elevators and stairwells that lead up to the hangar and down to security control. The corridors surrounding and going between each chamber are dark, and there are signs of a firefight having broken out at various spots, with flashing emergency lights briefly illuminated dead morphs or blacked spots of walls and otherwise unremarkable and scant on cover.

The equipment in auxiliary life support is much more spartan than that in the central plant or hydroponic farm, designed only to support life in the operations center instead of the entire outpost. Recyclers for water, atmospheric scrubbers, a small hydroponic farm and power generation from a nuclear battery. The space is utilitarian, with tools to maintain it all along with a desktop cornucopia machine and feedstock for emergency purposes.

There are clear signs of a struggle inside: the cornucopia machine is a mangled wreck, with parts scattered all over, and something highly acidic appears to have been spilled on the floor, with a shallow depression eaten into the tile floor. Some of the lights have been damaged, and the room flickers in and out of view with them. There are no bodies or any victims of this attack present.

Resembling a flight control room, the long range Comms room is wired directly into the outpost's surface LRC array, capable of transmitting and receiving radio, lasercomm, and neutrino communications. A circular arrangement of computer banks and consoles surrounds four chairs, with a hologram projector built above them. The doors read as locked down to all without security clearance.

Here as well, there are signs of a struggle: several of the consoles have been damaged by gunfire and explosions, and half-projected ghostly holograms are visible on the cameras as the projector tries to display something but with several of its projectors damaged in the struggle. The low lighting makes it difficult to determine anything more specific. As long as one of the consoles is functional, you should still be able to call for rescue.

Everything you would expect from a utilitarian resleeving facility is present within the resleeving chamber of outpost sigma. An ego bridge is standing by along with consoles to operate it, and there are three tanks designed to contain and indefinitely maintain biomorphs as well as racks for basic synthmorphs that are currently inert. Two tables like cold slabs for decanting are present in the middle of the chamber, as is equipment for first aid and basic synthmorph repair. Here too, the lighting is low...

...and here too are signs of struggle. One of the biomorph tanks has been smashed open, its contents spilled messily all over the floor, and two of the synthmorphs have been severely damaged by some kind of explosion. One of the tables looks half eaten through as though someone spilled highly caustic acid on it. The ego bridge looks like it's taken a direct hit, and even the untrained eye can tell that no one will be resleeving anytime soon.

Mesh hosting is a bank of servers and high-capacity computers, on which the outpost's mesh network is hosted. The room is cramped, with narrow passages put in between the rows of computers that hum loudly with their processes. Coolant is both liquid and gaseous, the room's ambient temperature kept low and coolant pumped through tubing run into the cores to keep them at a level temperature. Unlike the other parts of the facility, there is no indication that anything has taken any direct damage.

Immediately apparent are two people inside the mesh housing. One of them is sleeved in a biomorph - transhuman and presenting feminine - with an outfit suited for work in a laboratory and with no apparent injuries. She appears in a state of great distress, moving slowly and carefully in order to avoid the attention of the other person in the chamber with her-

-a transhuman sleeved in an armored slitheroid synthmorph, one Mehetan Noorzai. Mehetan moves with grace, the long metallic tail of his morph winding like a serpent to propel him through the server room. The morph glints with reflected light off of its steel-silver chassis, thickly armored and with red lights that shine from between the plates. The morph's synthetic head, apparently deliberately designed to look inhuman, turns slowly from side to side, scanning the corridors for any sign of his quarry. He carries a large, blocky rifle in his hands, and his morph has a shoulder mount with a serious-looking machine gun as he searches the mesh housing. His movements are slow and direct, and the biomorph within the mesh housing does not appear to have much time.

Level 1: Security Control​

The lowest point in the ops center, security control looks spartan and military: the lights are low here too, but not because of any sign of a struggle. A circular console at the center of the room is highlighted by your muses as containing the decryption key you need as part of your primary objective. There are also a row of weapon lockers at the north end of security control, although it is impossible to make out what's inside as all of them are closed shut. There is no sign of activity on any of the cameras, nor is there any sign to suggest anyone is down here and able to help you.

IMG_1803.jpg
 
Vidar

The understanding comes all at once. In a surge. Just by looking. A feeling of internal motion, and then he simply knows. He takes the briefest of moments to pause- to go over the knowings with conscious thoughts. How the violence in the resleeving room had begun at the same time as the initial chaos in the halls, how the battle had moved from room to room, each bit of damage like a domino in a chain. The difficult part was repackaging the understanding back into language.There was a lot of information he could spew out, but what came out was;

"Oh god oh god. It's in the vents its in the vents its in the vents."

[Have any of you assholes seen alien? I think we have an alien situation.]
 
Rushing Jaws​

[It's in the vents, huh? Good to know.]

Rushing Jaws steps back, keeping his gun trained on the door and tasking his muse with alerting him if something appears on the imaging scope. Flipping through the mesh hosting cameras, Rushing Jaws finds the best views he can of Mehetan's weaponry, whistling a cetacean whistle when he catches sight of Mehetan's primary weapon.

[Be advised: Mehetan's packing some kind of seeker rifle - that thing looks big enough to have minimissles loaded up, as opposed to my micromissle launcher. You don't wanna take a direct hit from one of those. He's also got a machine gun loaded up on there, looks like a firearm rather than railgun so we should expect him to have some tricky munitions.]

Rushing Jaws swears under his breath, [This dude's loaded for fuckin' bear, I'll bet he's the reason the situation's half as contained as it is. Taking him on would make for one glorious firefight, maybe not one I'd rush into.]
 
All four of the borgs look to Vidar.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Micah asks, audibly disturbed as the other three are visibly disturbed.
 
StarmanBlue said:
All four of the borgs look to Vidar.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Micah asks, audibly disturbed as the other three are visibly disturbed.
Click to expand...
"I can also read minds," he added, "direct action aint big on pysche exams. okay?"
 
Devin ignored Vidar making himself look like an idiot and squinted at Mehetan. "I don't think he's gonna be down for any sort of negotiating," he said, hoping that he could get everyone away from questioning Vidar and onto the bad guy with the big guns. "He's striking me as the 'shoot first ask questions never' type. The good news is that he looks hella distracted between her and us." Devin frowned and said, "But Mehetan's in a big synth morph with a big gun, and whoever that is is unarmed and in a normal looking biomorph. He should have turned her into Swiss cheese already. What's her deal, d'you think?" he asked the room at large.
 
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"That sounds like the Mehetan I know," Aoife says, swearing under her breath as she keeps her gun trained on the door.
"Wait, her? Is it Beatrice?" Haruki asks, audibly worried about whoever Beatrice is. "I saw her run out of Bioscience when all the shit went down, is it her?"
"Haruki!" Aoife rasps, silencing the other borg. "Beatrice Watts is a microbiologist, a research scientist working over in BioSci. I'd be surprised if she were still alive at this point."
Rushing Jaws does her the courtesy of taking a screengrab from the TacNet and having his muse forward it to Aoife, whose eyes go long in expression as she refocuses on her entoptic displays.
"That's her alright," Aoife rasps. "Good news Haruki, your crush is still alive."
"Fuck you," Haruki rasps back, "she won't be for much longer if we don't help her!"
[What do we think, squad?] Rushing Jaws asks over TacNet [if we don't move fast we might have to recover her stack, but that's some evil steel we gotta wrestle with: if we're gonna get in there then we gotta kick it now.]
 
Outpost Sigma - Operations​

Checking the security logs for mesh hosting, Abby finds out that Mehetan and Beatrice have been battling it out for control of the systems - with Beatrice so far keeping Mehetan’s access to the cameras offline, preventing him from viewing her directly. The two of them are clearly capable hackers and a match for one another, Beatrice keeping Mehetan busy on the network - and neither of them noticing the hidden Abigail Hammond.
[If the fucker didn’t have a smartlinked gun, we coulda done a two-door breach and forced him to commit all his firepower one direction, and hit him from direction 2 first, then hit him mid-swap from 1. As is, he can shoot both ways, and I dunno if we got the guns and dudes for a 3-pronged assault. Least his shoulder mount can’t turn without his body.] Said Mach, unhelpfully.
[We have thermite charges,] Devin said.
[Abigail is accessing Mehetan’s mesh inserts, stand by for updates], Proxy informed the squad.
[The thermite would be great for a breach, but they’re shit as grenades, and I doubt anyone could slap one directly on him without taking a shitload of bullets. Maybe we oughta see if Abbs solves this herself? Because I don’t think ambushing him’s an option at this point, unless you’re willing to let that precious NPC die.] Replied Mach, again, less than helpfully.
[I’ve done stupider things] Vidar volunteered.
[Uh squad, we got a development], Rushing Jaws transmitted, pinging a security camera overlooking Beatrice and Mehetan: Beatrice glances up, listening for the metallic slithering of Mehetan’s synthmorph and falling to her hands and knees to try sneaking away from him. Mehetan’s head turns sharply toward where Beatrice is hiding, his gun raised for the server bank as Beatrice scrambles to escape mesh hosting. Mehetan kicks into action, turning the corner to catch Beatrice - who only glances behind her before breaking into a run, throwing subtlety to the wind.
[Shit, she’s been spotted - we gotta kick off now!] Rushing Jaws transmitted.
[Fuck this, Metz can oneshot me. I’m gonna run for the drive, y’all deal with him!] Replied Mach, tossing his tools to the Welderbot and telling it to find and listen to Devin so someone could get some damn use out of it, then flew at top speed down to the security control room… He was going for objective, NPCs be damned.
[Okay, AngerKite is on the move. Some one should hit comms while the rest of us engage, we’ll have our bases covered for the rest to get off this rock if something goes south. We can flank the network host and- Dev you wanna run to comms? Maybe take out the cameras, we can fall back to you and get a little privacy there if we need it? The rest of us can try to shoot ssnek until he’s dead while Abbey does her thing. If you object scream now- cause we gotta go. I can’t actually see the drawing but the four rooms are in a four grid with hallways all around so we should be able to bottleneck him no matter which way they spill out of that room.] He sheathed his sword and switched to his gun, because he was not infact born yesterday.
[ET phone home,] Devin said.

“Viddy, take two of the borgs with you and head up toward LRC - take position on either side of the corridor. I’ll take two and head over toward resleeving, position on the same. Hopefully we can catch this fucker in a crossfire before he knows what’s happening, or I can at least get a clear shot on him while y’all move around for a flank.”
“I’m with her,” Aoife says, pointing at Rushing Jaws.
“I’ll...okay,” Haruki says, falling in with Rushing Jaws as he and Aoife rush down the corridor.
“Guess we’re with you?” Micah says to Vidar.
“Let’s go,” Vadim says, SMG at the ready.
[Abigail has made contact with Mehetan Noorazi’s mesh inserts: brute force hacking is underway] Proxy informed you over tacnet.
“Perfect, lets shoot some shit.” He added spilling in after the other three but heading up towards coms and into position.
As the squad maneuvers into position, Beatrice scrambles to get to the closest door leading out to the corridor between mesh hosting and long-range comms. She stumbles over herself, hyperventilating with panic as Mehetan bears down on her, taking aim with his seeker rifle-
-and opens fire with the shoulder-mounted LMG for a full-auto burst.
As anyone watching on cameras sees Mehetan perforate Beatrice with a fully-automatic burst of machine gun fire, something strange happens: where you would expect to see a spray of blood, the bullets seem to thunk into her morph as though striking ballistic gel, with Beatrice scrambling to her feet and rushing out the door into the hallway, apparently not bothered by taking ten bullets directly to her own body.
[FUCKING YIKES]
[What the fuck WHAT THE FUCK, y’all saw that just now right??] Rushing Jaws calls out on TacNet, even as he trains his gun down the corridor, waiting for either Beatrice or Mehetan to turn the corner as he trains the laser sight on his underbarrel launcher down the corridor.
Human flesh doesn’t fuckin DO THAT, how the fuck did she take ten bullets like that??
“Fucking yikes…” He swears, trying to keep it quiet.
“What?” Aoife asks.
“What?” Rushing Jaws repeats, before realizing what he’s doing and silently cursing his own neo-cetacean reflexes. “Nothing, guns up - he’s gonna turn the corner.”
“Beatrice’s infected- or maybe it just looks like her,” Vidar warned the borgs with him, “Get ready to shoot things that move and to see some crazy shit.” He brought his own gun up to the ready.
Beatrice stumbles out of the east door to mesh hosting, running as fast as she can while she has a lead on Mehetan. Rushing Jaws and the two borgs with him hold fire, the borgs waiting on his lead as Rushing Jaws holds to see Vidar’s reaction.
Vidar opens fire on her, mostly just to be sure that a few more bullets wouldn’t make a difference. And they sure don’t.
[We’ve got a bullet nonresponsive goo girl on top of bullet ssnek. As they say in america: Yehaw.]
Fuck it, let's see how she handles this, Rushing Jaws thinks, training the laser sight on Beatrice: clearly she sees his rifle at the far end of the hall, as she tries to throw herself to one side to dodge the missile - but Rushing Jaws keeps her laser-painted for the micromissle, watching her horrified expression as the missile detonates right in front of her.

The explosion rocks the corridors, but it is not a broken biomorph left standing after the smoke clears: Beatrice Watts has instead collapsed into a massive, viscous pile of snot-like biomass with meaty tongue-like protrusions, a mass that wears Beatrice's face and clothing like it's all painted on. The disguise fails quickly with the thing's effort to keep itself together though the high-explosive blast, Beatrice's face stretching and warping until fading away into another tendril of the creature. The hall is filled with the sound of a scream being warped and distorted into a flabby noise until the creature pulls itself back together, small puddles of its mass smoldering all over the blast site as its surviving biomass trembles violently.
"What the fuck!?" Rushing Jaws swears aloud, having to suppress his own urge to vomit.
"Sure! Why the fuck not!?" Aoife exclaims, gun trained on the mass.
"Beatrice!!" Haruki shouts, his gun steady despite the horror on his face.
"Beatrice!!- fuck," Rushing Jaws swears again as he watches Beatrice reform into that horrible mass between them and Mehetan. "Guns up, aim for the one in the back and leave the thing to us!"
Vidar swears creatively in norwegian in that way he did that made the translators go [curse words. Explicative. Horse dick.] and reloaded his gun, flipped on his neurochem and exited out of all five games of candy crush he’d been working on.
The biomass at the center of this chaos flattens itself out and slithers for the wall, toenail-like studs in its tendrils out to grip the wall as it begins climbing for a ventilation shaft up near the ceiling. It does nothing other than ooze, flowing up the wall in yet another abomination of nature and beginning to pour itself into the vent shaft to escape the fighting. The metal of the vent begins to hiss audibly as it forces itself through the grate.
“Good luck,” Devin said, and darted down the hall to the comm center, darting past Vidar and the two borgs flanking him.
[Meep meep!] he told Vidar over private chat.
“Good luck,” Rushing Jaws says, echoing the word of pod as he as he triggers his own neurachem. Feeling everything slow down by barely perceptible degrees - or his own actions speed up, its all relative - Rushing Jaws levels the laser sight on Beatrice, another micromissle chambered and primed.
Mehetan can wait, I don’t want this fucker sneaking up on us. He fires, and this time can see the thing on the wall drop down by all but its two tendrils as the missile closes in a bid to escape the blast-
-but he is able to correct course and bring the missile right on top of Beatrice when it detonates. Something pops wetly with the explosion, showering the walls and the floor in bits of the thing that begin to hiss. The smoke clears in time to see the thing hanging by its tendrils, any trace of its cover gone and its mass trembling even more violently than before, struggling to keep it held up to the wall as it tries to escape, smaller than before with lost mass.
“What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck” Micah babbles, shooting wildly with his submachine gun - the bullets almost striking Devin with his frenzied shot, instead striking the surrounding floor and wall.
“Fuck!” Aoife curses, “Haruki, go for the red lights!”
Both of the borgs on RJ’s side try to shoot through the blast, but Mehetan seems utterly undeterred - if he was even hit at all.
“Hey! Watch the merchandise!” Devin shouts at Micah.
Beatrice barely has time to recover from the last missile before another flies right at it, expertly aimed by Mehetan before detonating with another hab-shaking blast. The blast sends Beatrice to the floor with a massive splot, the mucus-like mass quivering and in several small and inert pieces. The crux between the corridors is a bombed-out ruin partially obscured by smoke and with the walls charred or dented with the explosions.
Vidar’s eyes go wide as devin almost eats cross fire and continues to cuss and decides where he wants to be as this next bit goes down. He rushes past Devin-
[meep meep] he responds back in the private chat
And into the coms room- If he’s right and he admits to himself there’s a good chance he isn’t since he can’t look at the map, that the other door of the room leads out to the hall mehetan is in.
[If he doesn’t stand down- I’m in position.]
He vaults over some shit in his way and careens to the closed door he correctly anticipated.
[In position] Rushing Jaws repeats with the fraction of a second he has to draw a bead on Mehetan, not bothering to wait and see if the containment specialist is going to stand down with their mutual enemy apparently neutralized. With another fraction of a second, Rushing Jaws switches his rifle to full-auto before unleashing a burst aimed for the red lights in Mehetan’s morph.
Anyone tuned in to Rushing Jaws’ tacnet feed watches as ten high-velocity rail slugs slam into Mehetan’s morph with expert precision between the armor plating, staggering the combat slitheroid. The damage looks severe, but the morph isn’t incapacitated, and Mehetan prepares to take aim-
-before hesitating, his attention turned inward, reeling from some unknown assault. Almost as quickly as it starts, Mehetan shakes it off and refocuses on the battle at hand.
[Well shit. I tried to shut him down, but it didn’t work.] Abby relays, [I’ll do what I can to slow him down, but bullets might be your best bet.]
Vidar reads those words about bullets at just about the moment his body is too far committed into rolling out the door and taking a literal stab at a synthmorph- and to be fair neurochem was a lot like dumping a whole bottle of caffeine pills into a water bottle, a lot of fast, maybe a little too fast and to be extra fair he had never really tried to stab into a synthmorph before. He could have done with a lot more shoulder and blow that should have shiskababed biomorph just sort of glanced off and along the edge of his plating.
Vidar swallowed a laughed, the kind of laugh that came out of him constantly on mission, only this time it was supremely apparent he was a laugh when nervous kind.
[shit.]
“The fuck, dude,” Devin said as Vidar careened past him and out the other door. He gestured after Vidar, and then went to the comms, and started calling for their ride.
“The fuck, dude,” Rushing Jaws echoes Devin over the feed, watching as Vidar’s sword glances off Mehetan’s plating. “Lets see if we can tag those red lights again,” Rushing Jaws mutters, taking just a second to aim before firing off another full-auto burst.
This shot isn’t as clean as the last with Mehetan’s morph twisting around in response to Vidar’s attack, but the high velocity rail slugs manage to punch through Mehetan’s armor in key points, sending his shell reeling. The slitheroid morph fights to stay upright, its movements jerking and unsteady before the lights go out and the morph collapses to the floor with a heavy thud, only just avoiding Vidar’s foot.
Rushing Jaws keeps a steady eye through the imaging scope, but the morph seems inert: he still holds his breath for a few seconds before allowing himself to relax.
[RJ to squad, Mehetan is neutralized.]
“I’m gonna miss this fucking gun, you guys,” Rushing Jaws says aloud, taking just a moment to admire the well-simulated hardware of an assault railgun.

[Are you sure he’s it? Like, what happened with the scientist, I wasn’t paying attention.] Texted Mach, who was being VERY IMPATIENT WITH AN ELEVATOR.
“Wasn't paying attention,” Rushing Jaws repeats, finding assurance in the pod even with all hostiles pacified. [Beatrice went John Carpenter’s The Thing on us, turned out not to be so resistant to minimissles. We might be able to get a stack out of Mehetan, I dunno about Beatrice though.]
Vidar takes a moment to breath, having been very sure he was about to eat it. He laughs a little to himself looking at his sword like he’s incredibly disappointed in it. And then decides to test how much shoulder he needs to put in to stabbing a synthmorph for next time- which unfortunately looks a lot like fucking around.
“It is the year of our lord twenty-one twenty and it’s this difficult to make a fucking phone call,” Devin complained. “Why call someone when you can just upload your brain into their house, am I right?”
“I want my phone back, period. I’m calling in from the year of our lord twenty fifty five and I want to know how to un-install the future, I’ll hold till you find the instruction manual,” Vidar called back. He has decided to try and figure out the best angle to get at mehetan’s stack, slav squatting in close for inspection. He nods to himself, positions the slythermorph where he wants it and then does his best impression of an executioner to get at his stack severing the head. After several minutes of dicking around he pulls out the stack. “Got Him!” He declares.
“Holy shit, check this out,” Vadim says, SMG pointed toward the floor and watching Vidar work the ruined shell for the stack. “The wounded boy charged Mehetan with a fucking sword.”
“That was a fucking impressive display of resolve and firepower but uh, what do we do about...Beatrice?” Aoife asks, watching the blasted mass of whatever Beatrice had become slowly eat through the floor in the corridor. “Is it...is it dead?”
“Is it dead?” Rushing Jaws repeats, still unsettled by the biomass. “I’m not expert on alien shit but it ain’t moving much.”
“And they had echolalia forever, Harold,” Devin said. “I sure hope it’s dead,” he added in answer to Aoife.
 
[Alright kids, gimme like... hm. Ten minutes? Yeah. Gotta disconnect the tunnel doors from the system or they will open as soon as I lift the lockdown, then I gotta lift the lockdown itself.] Abby sent out over the tacnet, then started to get to work locating the door controls on the Ops Center network and convincing the tram doors not to open because of a biological hazard in the tunnel. With that done, she started lifting the lockdown on the Ops Center so that everyone could leave. All told, it took close to the estimated ten minutes.
 
Outpost Sigma - Finale​

The lights snap back on all over the ops center with the lifting lockdown, and many of the doors in earshot disengage locks that were previously in place. The tram tunnel doors remain sealed thanks to Abby’s quick thinking, and anyone checking the cameras would hear the sound of scratching and slamming on the heavy doors along with distressed wailing and gnashing. The grisly scenes in the walls are now fully lit, but there is no further signs of activity beyond the squad and the survivors.

“Finally some good news,” one of the flight controllers says to Devin Murphy over the line. “Hang in there, we got a ship on the way to evacuate you - she’ll be prepped with medical staff to scan and treat the survivors.”

“Good news, friends!” Abby and the survivors hear from over the radio. “This is Lief! We’re following your trail and entering the second garage bay now. Turns out I'm a little out of practice with my driving on the moon…”

The decryption key is kept on a drive in security control that has to be connected to with a fiber-optic cable but that downloads the key into the cortical stack of the simulated fighting kite Marcus is sleeved in once it verifies his access credentials. Security control is quiet, with none of the carnage in evidence aside from a security locker having been ransacked - the one exception being a console that chimes to indicate one of the garage bays being opened and accessed by a buggy.

The time it takes the SLOTV to arrive is the time the squad needs to treat injuries, ensure the stability of the survivors and the integrity of the data drives, and secure the hangar against any attempt at attack. The things in the tram tunnel wail against the door, but it is shut tight against them and rated for much heavier attack, and so all they can do is disturb anyone listening in on the feeds with their screaming and chittering. The outpost mesh pings you to inform you that the SLOTV is about to arrive, and the worker borgs get to work on opening the far hangar and preparing for the ship’s arrival.

Sure enough, the ship arrives, the hangar bay barely large enough to fit it as the doors above it close and seal. After a few minutes for atmospheric cycling to complete, the immense doors between the two hangar bays open, the ship’s cargo bay door and on ramp deployed and with several combat drones with guns pointed your way - until they receive a stand-down order from the sole transhuman present there, someone sleeved in a biomorph with South-Asian characteristics and wearing a blue uniform identifying him as an officer of the Trans-Atlantic Alliance.

“Is this everyone? Come aboard quickly!” He says in his native Hindi, beckoning urgently and looking past you to the doors. The survivors certainly are eager to be out of there, rushing ahead under the watchful eyes of the drones as everyone boards the shuttle. Aoife stops for just a second behind you all to do something on the outpost’s mesh - something that triggers an alarm and begins closing the doors between the hangars - before boarding, the on-ramp retracting before the cargo doors close and seal. Crew members in light combat armor start tending to the wounded survivors while the uniformed officer approaches the squad.

“We weren't sure anyone was left alive, let alone able to resolve this situation and extract with the data - this will be critical for the war effort,” the officer says, taking the primary data drive from the squad as the decryption key is automatically copied over.

“Oh, excellent - I see you have the auxiliary data drives from the outpost,” the officer says as you present them to him. “All three, apparently uncompromised. This is going to go a long way as well - your efforts are to be commended.”

“Add to that they didn't shoot any of us,” Aoife says. “Even when we were ready to shoot them.”

“You didn't have to get us,” Hannah says, “thank you.”

“Yeah, thanks for talking us down from there,” Leif says.

“I’m going to miss Manuela, but perhaps this is for the best - thank you for saving us,” Khadaafi says, a tear in his eye.

“Ah, I see you've recovered the cortical stack of Mehetan Noorzai,” the officer observes. “I doubt he appreciated being killed, but I'll trust it was for the best; I'm sure he will at least appreciate the courtesy.”

“All hands, prepare for takeoff,” someone says over the ship’s intercom as AR graphics flash to warn you to strap in. Everyone does so, and seconds later you feel thrust-weight push down on your simulmorph as the SLOTV launches up out of the hangar, rising for a few seconds before beginning a gentle 0.2g acceleration. Medical or robotics technicians approach you and check your morphs for any sign of infection; the process takes a few tense moments, but once they are done they declare all passengers free of infection. Although there is a heavy feeling in the hold, it is balanced out by a profound relief at having escaped the nightmare of outpost Sigma.

“You did some fine work in there,” the officer says to you. “Well done, all of you.”

This is the last thing he says before the ship’s lights begin to fade, and as the reality of the simulation is gently fuzzed out so as to not shock you to the process of extraction. First the background goes, and then the outlines of the survivors and crew fade, and then the color washes out, and then all that is left is the sound of the ship before that too fades into noise, and then silence.
 
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DarkShadowWolf
DarkShadowWolf
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