Splicers - I Am Legion - IC Thread

[Eonivar]

Jin was silent over the Bio-Comms while listening, then she checked the resonance of her transmitter to make sure it was still on her own squads frequency before speaking, she set her receiver so she could hear them and the team if need be. She made a mental note of the Shiva frequency for future reference.

-"I have patched in to their bio-comms, they are looking for something in that clearing, good news is they have not seen us yet."-

Jin continued watch the four milling about as well as keeping her sensors open for anything else that may come.

-"What should we do? I am thinking we make a note of the position in our report and find a way out of here away from them so we can continue on the mission. Chaska do you see anything else beyond the four roughnecks?"-

 

[Purr]

These War Mounts are called Abominations for a reason, and they are universally hated and feared by anyone not of House Shiva. There is a standing order in House Artemis to eliminate any of these horrid monsters whenever possible.

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What is known about these monsters? They are carnivores, hunting down their prey with the use of Stealth Fields to be able to stalk and close in on their targets before lashing out with various tentacles to pull in their target and begin feeding, usually without the benefit of letting their food die first. They have acid for blood, and can spit it at their targets to cause intensive wounds. These are very bad news.

What do you do?

Chaska becomes perfectly still, "freezing" without tension. Becoming a silent as a shadow. As observant as an owl in the trees. This state of being appears to be a very natural one for him, as if he has assumed it hundreds of times.

"Quiet," comes the Deliveryman's urgent whisper over the Bio-Comms to everyone.
"Six ahead..."

"...move away. Far."

Using echolocation, once he senses Jin's retreat, he too will begin his soft-footed departure from this area. If Jin does not move then neither does Chaska, lest he stumble into her by mistake. He is well-aware that he is a novice Splicer and he doesn't want that working against them.

Perhaps displaying incredible patience for someone his age, Chaska does not want to take any other action except move until the squad is at least a quarter mile away.

 

[Eonivar]

"Six ahead..."

"...move away. Far."

-"Falling back to the team. We should move farther back into the tunnel away from this clearing before we determine what to do next."-

Jin felt relieved as she slowly crept backwards towards the team, moving very slowly to not compromise her stealth field and to make sure she made no sounds in doing so.

 

[Psychie]

Toni doesn't argue with their point-men, instead she does her best to stealth away from the opening of the cavern, moving slowly to keep her camouflage operating at its best effect to keep her hidden. She says, "Copy that. Moving back with extreme caution."

 

[Sherwood]

With no one putting up any objections, the mixed team begin to creep backwards away from the chamber with the troops from House Shiva. Before long, the six of you are about a half mile from the Shivans as they continue to hunt for something in the rubble. With Chakra and Lin coming up from the rear, you are all reunited in the passage.

Jin can hear over the Shivans' bio-comms that they are getting irritated that they haven't found what they are looking for yet, and there is growing dissent among them, with one wanting to stay and keep searching and at least three griping about being stuck on a stupid job like this. It sounds like that they may be leaving the area soon, but you are not certain.

At this point, you can either wait it out for the Shivans to leave or try and dig your way up and out to get to the surface once more. What do you do?

 

[Psychie]

Toni takes a deep breath and leans against the wall of the tunnel, feeling the stress starting to fade. "Ok, we have a force of Shivans up that way in our path, with what sounds like a couple with stealth fields active. As much as I would love to hang their heads on a stick, I don't want to do anything to compromise our mission to the industrial plant. We have plenty of time on our hands. Why don't we just hold our position here and wait for them to leave? The alternative is to spend a few hours of hard work digging out, and that might be enough to draw attention to us. Lets wait."

 

[Eonivar]

Jin's stealth field faded once they reached their meeting point.

-"The Shivan's are getting irritated that they are unable to find whatever they are looking for and are beginning to argue amongst themselves...I am not sure if they will be leaving soon or not. They have not mentioned anything as to what they are looking for so far. I have noted their Bio-Comm frequency for future reference, they probably use more than one frequency like all the clans do, so this may not work all the time, but this time I got them."-

Jin peered back down the tunnel towards the Shivans, keeping an eye out down there, and spoke over the Bio-Comms.

-"So what should we do? Wait for them to leave, if they leave...or find another way out of here?"-

 

[Purr]

Jin's stealth field faded once they reached their meeting point.

-"The Shivan's are getting irritated that they are unable to find whatever they are looking for and are beginning to argue amongst themselves...I am not sure if they will be leaving soon or not. They have not mentioned anything as to what they are looking for so far. I have noted their Bio-Comm frequency for future reference, they probably use more than one frequency like all the clans do, so this may not work all the time, but this time I got them."-

Jin peered back down the tunnel towards the Shivans, keeping an eye out down there, and spoke over the Bio-Comms.

-"So what should we do? Wait for them to leave, if they leave...or find another way out of here?"-

"JinLi can share de Bio-Comm trick? Want to hear." Chaska points at his helmet.

 

[Purr]

-"So what should we do? Wait for them to leave, if they leave...or find another way out of here?"-

Eonivar "Is best they leave and maybe we look with our gifts? For what they are after?" Chaska raises up two fingers. "Then we leave here and proceed on Cerberus mission for ChiefRybeck.

Chaska thinks hard for a moment. "House Shiva is rogue house. Four Roughneck, I detect. but also... two Abominations in Stealth Fields. Super dangerous. I wish wait until they leave and then we return to see if Abominations still there. If not there, we search. Then, find or no find, we leave and continue our mission."

Chaska peers at his fellow Splicer. "You can teach us how to hear House Shiva, JinLi?"

 

[Sherwood]

Axel grimaces. "House Shiva? That is some serious bad news. Especially those Abominations. They're designed to kill not only the Machine but Splicers in Host Armor, too. Anytime that someone manages to take one of those bastards out it is a good day. I just wonder. . . if there was a way for us to deal with them, shouldn't we take it? What if . . . what if we were to sneak back to the cavern that they are in and hit the ceiling? Bring it down and crush them all. Then we can dig our own way out and make tracks to the industrial plant that is the target of the Kamikaze Worms. Between all of us, we should have enough firepower to bring down the roof."

 

[Purr]

Axel grimaces. "House Shiva? That is some serious bad news. Especially those Abominations. They're designed to kill not only the Machine but Splicers in Host Armor, too. Anytime that someone manages to take one of those bastards out it is a good day. I just wonder. . . if there was a way for us to deal with them, shouldn't we take it? What if . . . what if we were to sneak back to the cavern that they are in and hit the ceiling? Bring it down and crush them all. Then we can dig our own way out and make tracks to the industrial plant that is the target of the Kamikaze Worms. Between all of us, we should have enough firepower to bring down the roof."

Chaska's reply is grim. "Bad plan. Chaska sense six. If this House Shiva territory, they maybe call in many more than six. Plus, cave-in likely attract Machine because Machine knows we here when we destroy Battle Track. Ambush us when we climb out. We die."

"We novices, JodiAxel. For Chaska and Woodstock, Cerberus mission for ChiefRybeck come first. Not House Shiva kill count. Silence mean success here."

 

[Psychie]

Toni thinks hard for a moment, then says, "That might just work, but it would take a sizable amount of firepower directed at just the right spot to make it happen, and I for one am not an engineer to know the proper weak spots on the roof to hammer to bring it down. And Chaska's right about the risks. We should either sit tight or start tunneling out to the surface on our own now. Engaging them is just a bad idea. Personally, I say we wait them out. Digging has its own risks of them hearing us and coming to investigate."

 

[Sherwood]

Axel shrugs. "Ok. We can sit for a while. From what you told me about your timetable, we have plenty of time to wait."

 

[Purr]

Axel shrugs. "Ok. We can sit for a while. From what you told me about your timetable, we have plenty of time to wait."

Inside the Host Armor dubbed the WyldKat, Chaska grins with a smile of knowing. "Not just wait, JodiAxel, but learn. Just think!

He turns to Jin. "Now that JinLi has found way to spy on House Shiva Bio-Comms, that knowledge must return to Kraken with us... and ChiefRybeck! Think of how many on Kraken not die to House Shiva if we return home with this! Will JinLi share it with us? Improve our chances?

"Think also of lives we might lose if House Shiva capture us! What if House Shiva learn that spying on Bio-Comms is possible? Then they have advantage! This knowledge we have... is a blade with two edges." He touches one of his pair of acidic swords on his hips.

"But getting to Facility. Sending signals to Kraken. Destroying Facility. All of this... only first half of Cerberus mission. Second half? We must return to Kraken. Maybe retracing our steps... maybe finding new path... but return to Kraken alive and well we must... or we fail."

The enigmatic Splicer raises one hand and touches his faithful bird, Woodstock, while the other forms a strange sign in the air.

"Upon my honor, I, KokoroChaska, have sworn to ChiefRybeck - in this very first of Cerberus mission... we will succeed!"

 

[Psychie]

Toni nods. "Ok. We wait and we learn what we can of the enemy's actions. Chaska, you have the ability to sense the Abominations with their stealth fields on, and you can cloak yourself at the same time. You are our first line of defense and detection. Head down the passage, about halfway between where we are now and the chamber with the Shivans in it and keep watch to make sure that there are no unexpected guests coming our way. You get one hint of them coming this way, report in and book it back to us and we'll focus our firepower on them one at a time. Everyone else, sit quietly and don't move any more than you have to. We don't want any sound to echo its way down to them that might reveal our presence. Jin, share what you've discovered about their operating frequency. We need to make sure that the info gets back to the Kraken."

She pauses, then asks, "Anyone have any questions, concerns or comments? If so, speak up now."

 

[Eonivar]

Jin looks back at the team.

-"Axel why is it that your first idea for anything is blowing it up?"-

Jin shakes her head.

-"I agree about sitting, listening, and waiting. I only hope that if and when they leave they go back the way they originally came and do not come this way. We should plan for that. Are there other passages in this tunnel we can take? I know we want to try and get closer to our target destination but we may have to detour to evade House Shiva's squad if they decide to come this way. But yes I would like to see if we can find whatever it is they are looking for, but we should not lose focus on our mission."-

Jin looks back down the tunnel.

-"As to the trick with the Bio-Comms...I was learning about Bio-Comms when I was taking my medical training and learning biology, so I got an understanding of how the Bio-comms actually work and how one could possibly adjust them out in the field in your Host Armor. I tried it the first time during combat training with the host armors and our training sergeant was an asshole who was out to get me, he was intimidated by me so he would take out his frustrations on me...so I tapped into his comms so I knew what would be coming. Made training much more worthwhile after that. The trick to it is that its like...learning a new biological function much when we were learning our Host Armor functions..similar to when I was learning how to use my motion sensors...but i will do my best to...convey how to manipulate the bio-comms."-

Jin in between listening to House Shiva and watching out down the tunnel proceeds to relay what she knows of the Shiva Bio-Comm frequency and how to listen in. (I presume it would require having the Bio-Comms skill and maybe knowledge of Biology?)

 

[Sherwood]

Axel gives Jin a smile. "Hey, there are few problems that can't be solved with the right application of high explosives. It's just who I am. I'm a problem solver."

Jin is able to share the details of how she is able to eavesdrop on the conversation of the four men from House Shiva, and now everyone is able to listen in on their grumbling as they hunt for whatever it is that they are after. Sitting and listening, it takes another twenty minutes before you hear one of the voices say, "Found it!"

"About damn time. I was starting to wonder if the contact had done as he said he was. Grab the box and lets get back home. We need to be careful once we get back to the surface; there is something stirring up the Machine in the area, and we don't need to get caught out and unawares."

"You ain't kidding. Ok, I got the drop. Lets get out of here."

It is clear that the Shivans are not coming your way, and they quickly head out down a different tunnel. There is idle chit-chat on the Shivans' bio-comms as they go, until finally their signal fades out as they walk out of range, marking the fact that they are at least six miles away from you.

 

[Psychie]

Toni takes a deep breath and makes sure that she is not going to broadcast on the Shivans' bio-comm channel, saying, "Before we go running in there, lets make sure that we are not walking into a trap. Chaska or Gus, you guys both have an ability to detect active stealth fields. Can we get one of the two of you to take a look in that chamber to make sure that the cloaked Abominations are gone? At that point we can move out and avoid them completely, but keep in mind that they are in the area."

One of Hearts or Purr

 

[One of Hearts]

Gus glanced at Chaska. He was fine doing the job but didn't want to interpose if Chaska wanted to do it.

 

[Purr]

"Before we go running in there, lets make sure that we are not walking into a trap.

The Deliveryman makes an unconscious display of his lack of social upbringing when he replies, "Chaska not running in there. Is best way to stumble."

He does not hesitate at Toni's reasonable request. Chaska and Woodstock shimmer and warp as they fade from easy view. Without waiting to see if Gus comes along, he makes his way back to where they were before using his echolocation and switching from vision to vision to learn what he can, all the while keeping an ear to his biocomms.

 

[Sherwood]

Advancing slowly, Chaska gets to the chamber and once more uses his echo-location sense to examine the room. This time, with both his eyes and the sonar, you can see that the room is empty of other living things and that there is no sign of anyone left in here.

Listening to the comms, Chaska doesn't hear anything on the frequency that the Shivans were using, indicating that they are either going silent for some reason or that they have left the six mile range of your bio-comms and are far away.

 

[Purr]

Sherwood Chaska searches the room with Woodstock's help. Is there any evidence what House Shiva was looking for?

 

[Sherwood]

Searching the area, you are not entirely sure what you are looking for. But when Chaska comes to one medium-sized slab of concrete, he can see that there is a part of a burlap sack sticking out from under it. The reason it catches your eye is that it doesn't appear to be something that has sat there for years on end being covered in dirt, but left there recently. Do you lift up the slab to check it out?

 

[Purr]

Searching the area, you are not entirely sure what you are looking for. But when Chaska comes to one medium-sized slab of concrete, he can see that there is a part of a burlap sack sticking out from under it. The reason it catches your eye is that it doesn't appear to be something that has sat there for years on end being covered in dirt, but left there recently. Do you lift up the slab to check it out?

(OOC: Not yet. =). Sherwood I have forgotten if we have any means of recording evidence via video or the like. Chaska is going to focus on that first.)

Having no prior encounters with House Shiva before, and knowing there were at least 4 Roughnecks and 2 Abominations in here and who knows what else from prior traffic, Chaska mentally gobbles up this smorgasbord of new information of tracks and details like a kid in a candy store.

How are House Shiva Roughneck tracks different than House Artemis? What do Abomination tracks look like? How much do they seem to weigh? Before he summons his own team in here, which will undoubtably change the evidence he has before him, did House Shiva leave any other physical evidence or items around?

Chaska tries to record, write down, or memorize every piece of information he finds that might benefit House Artemis.

Once he is done with those efforts, he returns to the burlap sack and slab and without touching anything, he uses his every sense, skill, and tool to see if this is a trap.

Chaska figures his team might want to know if this is a bomb prior to him calling them to move up. =)

 

[Sherwood]

In the rubble and broken bits of concrete, there are few footprints for you to look at, but you do find a few. The four men have imprints like you would expect from anyone else; nothing outrageously different that sets them apart from the rest of humanity. The two Abominations have large clawed feet, and seem to frequently move on all fours like a gorilla, but can also move with a more bipedal stance.

Turning to the concrete slab and the bit of burlap sticking out, Chaska is able to tap into his Detect Concealment skill to good effect, just well enough to spot a tripwire that appears to have been set to keep nosy people away. You don't have the needed Demolitions Disposal skill to be able to safely disarm the trap without risking blowing it up along with the contents of the bag. The charge is somewhere under the concrete block, so if it does blow it would most likely have the bulk of the blast contained under the block, but it would most certainly destroy whatever it is in the bag itself.