(CLOSED)

[erbier]

CHARACTERS: Ilde & Lexa (some Angel)
WHERE: the Alkon Facility
WHEN: Day 161 - 163
SUMMARY: The ladies from a pair of hard-scrabble worlds have decided to go on a hard-scrabble mission beneath the earth to look for supplies and weapons data.
WARNINGS: Definitely death and some horror elements, will update as necessary.

Comments

MENTAL LINK to LEXA

[erbier]

( A member of my brood has shared with me the location of an abandoned site of research. The descent will be difficult for those who do not know how to take care of themselves. )

[ There is a lot of judgment in that second sentence. How did some of these people expect to survive? Anyway. ]

( Are you capable? )

[ Not the most friendly invitation, very practical, but then they weren't exactly friends yet. ]

[adamance]

[The judgement is clear, and met with a degree of amusement on Lexa's end. Cathaway did say that the weak would end up "taking care of themselves" along the way.

Just in a different way than Ilde means.]

( More than. We'll have to require supplies first. )

[Ideas of capitalism and managing money is where she's been floundering here. Surely, she's managed to figure out some of the credit system, but she still thinks she might be getting cheated by the system.

Of course, given certain ... circumstances, she's had to halt in what she had been picking up to move out.]

[erbier]

( I have camped near our site of landing, I may find some of our requirements amongst the gear. )

[ If they could limit their shopping list in the port as much as possible, it would benefit them after all the ruckus that has been made. ]

[adamance]

( Then we'll begin there. )

[Though she doubts that they will be able to find all that they require among it.]

( Tell me more about where we're headed. )

[It's important to multitask while she heads over.]

[erbier]

( He and his crew found some kind of deed proposing the site. It drew my attention as it listed their gear. Useful to us, perhaps, even if it cannot be sold. )

[ The reason they are going is a place to to start. ]

( It is hidden beneath the Hot Line, and there is a tunnel entrance in the plains. My data-screen has the location stored. Blueprints as well, it is a large area, the map will do us well. )

[adamance]

( That should do. I think having a better idea of why we've been brought here might suit us. It shouldn't just be so that we can procure currency. )

[At least, Lexa would prefer that they have a better reason for being on this planet. As much as she can obtain objects that are necessary to survival, she would rather not be left to that with some regularity.]

[erbier]

( Monetary gain does not seem coherent with the station's goals. )

[ Agreement, although she would not claim to entirely understand the point of this mission either. ]

( But I find this preferable to running circles. )

[ She does not understand the point of jogging, okay... ]

DESCENDING

[erbier]

Start: Any sharing of expertise about descending, Lexa has it!
Finish: End of descent, getting inside and realizing the place is fucking empty, establishing atmosphere.

[adamance]

[Acquiring the appropriate supplies is only difficult because of their reputations that they left behind in the other town. Lexa knows precisely what it is she's looking for, and she manages to gather more than that once others figure out that they intend to do a bit of climbing. Advanced technology has a place here, after all, and she had been planning to do all of this without that additional assistance. With it (and a little help in figuring it out), she spends what credits she hasn't been using on housing to get what they need.

Along the way to the site, she explains what it is that they need to do, and the level of inevitable teamwork involved with the act. Though she hasn't engaged in this particular activity in a while, she's no stranger to it, especially since her people live fairly close to the Appalachian Mountains. Certain skills are necessary among them.

Once they get to the site, she only pauses long enough to prepare, looking over at Ilde one she's set to descend.]

Should we be prepared to fight? [It's a good question, and one she should have asked earlier.]

[erbier]

Always.

[ She's not trying to be flippant, this is just Ilde's way and feels as though Lexa will understand what she means. ]

There was some suggestion that it might be abandoned, however.

[ The reports had trailed off, that much Ilde knew. ]

[adamance]

[She does understand. Lexa is careful to relocate her knife from near her ankle to her belt so that she can grab it more easily. She knows that Ilde is without a weapon, unless she's obtained one since their initial chat.

Come to think of it:]

Are you armed?

[Lexa won't go without a weapon, but they should improvise first before they hope to find something below and are scrambling for nothing. Preparations are key, especially when they're as simple as that.]

[erbier]

[ Ilde's nose scrunches slightly, still annoyed that Prince took her knife. She could easily have acquired another, but it seemed to invite only trouble at this point. ]

I have the electric club which came with our gear.

[ The taser. Non-lethal, although apparently not completely useless. ]

[adamance]

I have mine as well. I'll hand it over to you if we need it.

[For now, that will have to do. That said, Lexa doubts that anyone inside will need to be temporarily halted.]

Going down, I want you to follow me. I'll keep track of our footing as we go. Listen. [That comes out like an order. (It is an order.)

Before they step down, she crouches at the edge and throws something forward, ensuring that it'll ricochet along the way. Lacking reliable lighting back home, she's done this enough times that she has a good sense for what lies ahead. She makes a satisfied sound when it hits the bottom and rises back up.]

IT'S A MYSTERY

[erbier]

Start: Assumption of wandering through some of the area before finding the first audio log.
Required Goal: Finding the keycard in RM. 004 so that they can continue to explore.
Finish: Finding the doctor, deciding to take the gear and research and get out of here now.

LOG #1 - RM. 004 [A voice with a strange sub-harmonic quality; it's impossible to tell from the recording whether the speaker is male or female]
I can't find my key again. Captain is going to hang me out to dry if I have to get it replaced one more time. I can't believe I'm such an idiot. I had it in my pocket when I took my nap, I'm sure I did. I'll ask Barnghat for theirs once they come off rotation and borrow it until I can find mine. How annoying.

LOG #2 - RM. 021 [A different voice, though a similar set of sub-harmonics]
Marnl seemed shaken today during afternoon labs. I'm not sure what that means. We were doing nothing different from what we've done for the past ninety cycles. I wonder if he is simply tired of being on this planet. Perhaps he is missing his family. This is a strange assignment. I'm glad there is no one at home for me to miss because it would be hard - not speaking to them and knowing that they have no idea I'm here. This isn't like the work we did on the platform where people had letter packets and messages every three weeks. It's strange to be so isolated from control for so long. I'm relieved that these people are my family and my closest friends. It must be so difficult otherwise. But here I wake up and I take my breakfast alongside my brothers and my sisters and I have never felt like I belonged more. Even if Marnl is missing his loved ones, I hope he is reassured by the work we've done here. Yes, today control would have this technology to stop a war, but I believe in the future off its applications afterward. It's saccharine to say I look forward to the end of fighting because who doesn't think that? But I find myself fascinated not by the idea of children growing up without learning to hold a weapon, but rather the direction in which these sciences will take us when there is no more fighting left to be done. What a strange thought! What a lovely version of the universe that will be.

LOG #3 - RM. 021 [the same voice as log #2, a hushed excitable whisper]
Marnl was taken from lab today by the security team. I knew he would be. He will be transported off site in the coming weeks, I'm sure. Regulations say he'll be taken to control for his court martial. I'm sure they will try him as a war criminal. Oh poor Marnl! But I don't regret anything I did. I knew when I found him alone in the reactor chamber that I was honor bound to report him to the commander. No one is allowed there without their partner. What could he have wanted to do without me? I wish he'd had as much faith in control as he is a brilliant scientist, but sadly sometimes there is no correlation between the two. I will have to remember to write his family after the war. I will tell his children he was misguided but loved them very much. Maybe they can learn something from it.

[erbier]

[ The little datacard and its reader are conspicuous on the desk. Left out in the open on an empty desk, in an empty room, in an empty research facility. Ilde picks it up in her fingers, turning it over, the glimpse of its metal interior pieces glittering faintly. ]

What is this...

[adamance]

[Lexa's exploration of the room is apart from Ilde, as she tries to take note of her surroundings in a way that allows them to double the area. If they're found too close together, they might find themselves in danger. She wonders if Ilde realizes that she's keeping her distance, all in order to protect herself. Then again, she doesn't intend on leaving Ilde behind if she can help it.

There is that.

The words bring her out of her thought, and she glances over.] Let me see it.

[There is much in her world that she doesn't know the use of, but she's fairly certain she's seen a card like that before—at least, on the body of someone from Mount Weather. It might be the same.

She closes the distance between them, extending her hand palm forward.]

[erbier]

[ She offers it over. She finds that she has an easy rapport with the other woman, they understand how to be cautious, how to survive, and in this case how to scavenge. How to look for the little things of abandoned every day life and root out what was still valuable. ]

Angel has begun to teach me of these things, but there is so much.

[ It was hard to sort through it all when she wasn't even sure what she was looking at sometimes. ]

[adamance]

[Once she retrieves the card, she turns it over in her hand. It isn't just her knowledge of the Mountain Men that makes her aware of what this is (though that certainly helps). There's something buried deep down that offers her the recognition she needs (or confirms it, though she isn't aware that it's being confirmed at all).]

I believe it may be a key. I've seen something like it before. We'll have to try it. Though ... [She glances around.]

It may be that nothing works as it once did.

[Aspects of this place remind her of what she imagines Mount Weather would have looked like after her people were done with it.

But in the end, her people hadn't really done much with it.]

[erbier]

A key.

[ There is no incredulity in Ilde's voice, really she doesn't know and any guess is as good as any other in her estimation. Rather than doubt her, Ilde begins to look around the room. The size of the thing suggestions to her that maybe it goes to a chest or a box, it seems too small for a door. But then what does she know.

It is purely by accident that she thumbs open the player and sees the slot inside, its similar glittering pieces of metal inside... ]

For this?

MENTAL LINK to ANGEL with LEXA

[erbier]

Goal: To download the encrypted research data!
Caveat: "Most of the terminals have been scrambled by the energy output from whatever destroyed the facility in the first place and the other terminals are heavily encrypted. It's possible to transfer the data, but it's not possible to crack into it without irreparably scrambling it."

They just want to take it for now, they're not so worried about trying to decrypt it down there. Because it's spooky.

Turns: I, A, L, A , I, A, L
So Ilde or Lexa take a turn every other, I think that will be the best flow since they're on one side of the conversation togther.

[erbier]

( Angel, we require your expertise. )

[circumspector]

( I'm here. What do you need? )

[adamance]

[Though they're speaking via their mind link, there is a noticeable softness both in Lexa's body language and intentions when speaking to Angel that's not usually in place otherwise. She's usually brittle and on edge, but it's clear that she's fond of Angel.]

( We require your assistance obtaining some information from machines. Would you be able to walk us through it from a distance? )

[Lexa has no doubt that she'd be able to if she were here, but she's not here.]

[circumspector]

[ She considers it, it would be of course easier if she were with them, but she's not. So she settles back that she's doing, settles her hands in her lap. ]

( I wont be able to use my abilities, but if you let me look through your eyes, I can guide you through it. )

[erbier]

( I feel that can be done, with some concentration. )

[ An aside to Lexa, as this is not something they have discussed much, ]

( Do you feel confident enough in your thought-sharing for this? )