IC - Shadow's Dawn: Diving into the past Options

[sabs]

[00:00:21 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Room]

"Bjorn, We were going for subtle." With a mental focus, Marduk suppressed his own magical aura and walked through the new 'door' Bjorn had opened up. Seeing the technician reaching for the communication system, Marduk quickly focused his Crushing Will on the man. A dribble of blood sliding out of his nose as the man's bones glowed brightly and then he fell to the ground.

Looking around the room, the cameras, the alarms going off. "Ril, we need you in here to take care of all this gadgetry. We're on a time limit, and we need to figure out how many guards are coming our way."

[pbangarth]

[00:00:21 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Room]

Once the last of his teammates passes through the gap in the wall and across the ward, Mandala crosses to the gap. He drops the Radiation Barrier and attunes himself to the Warder's signature. Yuck. Bad taste. With a flashy sidestep he passes through the gap into the reactor control room.

[00:00:24 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]

In the room, he studies the babbling technician and dematerializes. He returns as the spitting image of the technician, including his astral aura, complete with disheveled lab coat and bow tie. "Shall I run screaming into the hallway, looking for help from the... reactor disaster?"

[Aria]

[00:00:24 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]

Ryl stepped through the impromptu door, frowning to herself, perhaps she should have recalled how Bjorn liked to deal with things, and immediately upon finding a wifi signal began to hack the Azzie defenses. Her fingers flew across the virtual keyboard projection in front of her, a weird, semi seen dance for those who could see through the swirling dust and the strobing of the emergency lighting...

[Aria]

[00:00:25 – Reactor Control Room]

Ryl reached out into the virtual realm and easily snagged the primitive node operating in this enclosed concrete box. Dismissing it as irrelevant she left the others to deal with the terrified techs and moved to the only obvious system links out of here, in this case the cameras. A quick flick with a multi-tool and the access port on the side of the camera is exposed to her touch. Running a seldom used fibreoptic lead from her commlink she prepares to hack the system, settling into the corner beside the techies desk, hopefully out of the way of any incoming hostiles.

<<Going virtual, back soon>>

Inside the camera node she winces at the graphic IC portrayal, a primitive Aztech warrior and at the top of the pyramid and an avatar of the flayed god Xipe Topec. The god is wearing a flayed human skin, which is bubbling under the surface and in one hand the god holds a container of seeds...ignorant fools to be playing with such things. Confident in her abilities she extends the ethereal tendrils of her icon into the system, overriding the security protocols to create an admin account for herself. As she did this she allowed her reality filters to try and change the matrix iconography to something less offensive to her sensibilities...

[Aria]

[00:00:25 – Reactor Control Room]

Ryl swept past the hidden spider and nimbly dodged the trace IC sniffing through the camera node. Stretching her icon to the point of invisibility she followed the route out of the control node, hunting for a security control node where she would be able to get an overview of the pyramid’s matrix network. Her reality filters pushed aside the grotesque iconography of the Azzies and replaced it with the surreal techno forest that she favoured. Tracing a flowing stream of light in the forest floor she began her hunt...

<<Ril, my old friend. It looks like the biomonitor on this technician triggered an alarm. If you think you could figure out how to deal with that. That would be great.>>

<<Let’s us hope then that Mandala’s ruse is effective, I can’t cancel the alarm from here but I am penetrating further into their system. I’ll keep you informed...we need to move quickly though if we are to secure this place, they have a spider in every node so far and there is only so long I can distract them...we are at the heart here so hard and fast might favour us more than stealth>>

So saying Ryl prepared to upload Garyn from her commlink to an active part of the node, she would need someone to watch her back even if it cost her some response time.

[Seth]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2 & Toxic 1

<<In the matrix a loud gong sounds, you hear a gong sound, then the obsidium mirrors spell out the following.

"This is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill. Enemy aircraft designated Bandit 1 approaching at hypersonic velocities. Astral forms are assaulting external wards. Initiating plan 'Blood Alpha One'. This is the big one people, the one we have trained for: stay frosty and remember Xipe Topec is here with us"

The guard who had been diagnosing the mirrors curses: the alarm had clearly interrupted his diagnostics. His dogs visibly grow bigger, and the room acquires a visible red tint

As you leave this node, and your reality filters kick in, a leaf blows in the wind and lands in Ryl's hand, written on it are the words ARE YOU HERE TO KILL US OR SAVE US?>>

[Seth]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2 & Toxic 1

Looking out of control room door Mandala in the form of a one of the reactor technicians can see that the corridor which matches the map from the security briefing. To his left the doorway to room 27a can be seen, opposite is the door to a more prosaic storeroom, which is just opening. To his right the corridor ends in a staircase going up.

[Alyena]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2 & Toxic 1

Alyena winces as Fearghas is thrown across the room and lands in a crumpled heap. He always did like flying but his landings are usually a bit smoother she thinks.
As others go to his aid she turns to Mandala "Ready?" she asks and begins to weave another Slaughter Spirit as he nods in reply. She gauges the spell carefully, enough to give him a boost, not so much that he can't absorb it all. Just like old times.

Once the spell is coiling around him Alyena moves to the Control Room door and starts to cast again. This time the smokey tendrils of her Cleanse spell gather in and begin to crush the toxic aura of the corridor.

The familiar feel of the mindnet settles onto her, each mind fitting in place. Mandala has worked his magic again, just in time as she side steps Bjeorn as he barrels through the door and across the corridor.This is supposed to be a stealth miss.....Ah well, perhaps the time for stealth is past now that alarms have been triggered! she thinks as the door is ripped from it's hinges.

[pbangarth]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2 & Toxic 1

Alyena's spell struck at Mandala like a serpent, seeking, seeking his weaknesses. The wall of Mandala's will bowed and split before the onslaught, opening the way for the spell to burrow into him. Instead, it found the second line of defense. The serpent entwined in swirling blades of magic, deeper and harder than the simple spell could handle. Mandala bundled the damaging energies into packets, and stored them, churning and struggling, deep in his mind. He had little time to waste, though.

Concentrating his thoughts, Mandala drew fresh mana from the astral soup around him. He sucked the energy into his mind and re-wrapped the packets of restrained power in the fresh waves of mana, making seven smaller bundles. These he sent forth as messengers to his teammates with the imprint of his thoughts and senses, and as the messengers merged with their respective hosts, a flood of images and smells and sounds rushed back and forth among the teammates. Their minds melded into one hyper-aware network... eight pairs of eyes, eight sets of ears... wait!

In the control room, one mind swooned in darkness. Fearghas teetered on the edge of death. The damned ward took its victim! With the speed of thought, Mandala warned his teammates, Help Fearghas! Draw my energy and use it to help heal him!

The hallway before him, now seen by all, included a door opening right across from the control room. Mandala hunched and leaned against his partially open door. While his mind kept eight sets of senses open, his free hand reached out, supplicant for mercy, tears rolling down his face. How could anyone coming through that door not pity him?

[Sephiroth]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2 & Toxic 1

Fearghas looked on in amusement as Bjorn slammed brutishly through the warded chamber door and everyone flew from the reactor chamber. He laughed as he twirled his fashionably old spear in the fingers of one hand nonchalantly. "Bjorn, I'm impressed! That was the quietest you've been since that ball game of yours in Siberia back in 1908." He winked jokingly as he approached the warded space that formerly held a door, with his aura masked, his body strengthened, and his step light and full of bounce.

It was therefore a bit of a surprise when he briefly found himself thrown forcefully backwards into the air, but he was regretfully unable to experience the pleasure of a spontaneous meeting with the floor; he was unconscious before he hit the ground. His unconscious body spun and tumbled a good 5 meters across the floor before he came to a stop, and his spear fell several meters farther still.

The first thing he felt upon returning to consciousness was the biggest headache he'd had in 300 years. It was extremely inconveniencing, to say the least. Nevermind his dislocated shoulder, bleeding tongue, and what might be a bruised rib; no, those were a paltry sum in comparison with this damned splitting headache. "Fuck... ow! I am going to personally throttle that morkhan the moment we find him. Versoniel-ha!" he said in, his mind too distracted - and irritated - to keep English and Sperethiel straight.

He looked up at his companions as they rushed in to heal him and administer painkillers. He let out a sigh of relief as most of the pain disappeared from his body. "All right boys, girls, and bears. Let's get moving soon, shall we? As wonderful as another exchange with a ward sounds right now, we have a job to complete." He got up and prepared to cross through the ward again.

[Aria]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]

Ryl inspected the leaf in her hand, turning it over to admire the tracery of code whilst penning a message to the team

<<I picked up this in the matrix, it seems the council aren't hanging about, we had better move...!

"This is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill. Enemy aircraft designated Bandit 1 approaching at hypersonic velocities. Astral forms are assaulting external wards. Initiating plan 'Blood Alpha One'. This is the big one people, the one we have trained for: stay frosty and remember Xipe Topec is here with us"

There is some sort of blood ward on the outside of the pyramid, I'm not sure how long that will slow down the assault but we had better deal with Warder soon!>>

[Big Fella]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2

Bjeorn opens the door into the corridor and enters it. Opposite him the door to a storeroom starts to open. Bjeorn encourages the door to open faster, then drop the door on the floor...these doors are so fragile. Inside there is a young girl mouth open and cowering as Bjeorn's hulking (and in his view hideous) human form enters. The one security guard in the room who had been getting a requistion of paperclips or something, threw his cigarette to one side, and his hand lept to the sadly holstered gun. A rictus of fear upon his face as Bjeorn advances upon him

The guard frantically threw himself aside, but Bjeorn helped him on his with a gentle tap directing him towards the wall. Bjeorn glared at the girl "get on the ground, behind that desk, and you might live through this" he commanded.

[Aria]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]

With one part of her mind focused on the security nodeRyl wrote herself into the network log so that she could return here once she had a true wireless connection, hopefully in the corridor outside this room. She made a quick scan of the node to look for door controls and camera overrides and wifi coverage zones and simultaneously reached out with a digital claw to the leaf before her...

turning it over she scored into the underside

<< Do you need saving? We only seek a confrontation with those who would wish us harm or would harm others...>>

She flipped the leaf into the digital wind, hoping that whoever was watching her would pick it up...to the team

<< Someone has found me in the system, possibly Zero, although they've made no move against me yet...I'll keep you in the loop...>>

So saying she disconnected from the camera and followed the others into the corridor

[sabs]

[00:00:28 21 Jun 2070 - Outside Reactor Control Room]

~~Mindlink~~

Alright, lets split into our groups and go. Bjeorn, Alyena, Aren, you're with me. The others, get inside Room 27A, and be careful, I have a really bad feeling about that room. Lets keep communications to this, unless we get cut off, then we'll re-route everything through Ryl's commlinks.

~~~~

Marduk's voice sounded in everyone's mind, as he stepped out into the main corridor looking around. He had memorized the floor plans, and started walking carefully forward.

~~Mandala, can you sustain a spell for me? Aren, scout ahead~~

[pbangarth]

[00:00:28 21 Jun 2070 - Outside Reactor Control Room]

~~Mindlink~~

I can keep something going for you for about half a minute, Marduk, but after that it starts to burn me out. I already have to keep the Mindlink going, too, so I don't want to get stretched too thin.

~~~~

Mandala-as-nuclear-technician 'stumbles' out into the hallway, looking for cameras covering the hallway. to any camera he sees, he gesticulates: left hand on heart, right hand waving stay away; left hand points to reactor room, right hand draws thumb across throat; both hands wave run away. He staggers to the closet door across the hall, and looks in.

[Big Fella]

[ 00:00:28 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2

Bjeorn morphs back into his normal form, and begins to lope down the corridor towards the stairs. As he gets close to the stairs, he sees the feet of two guards coming down. Increasing his speed he charges them. His open claws grap their heads and smacks them together. KRACK! They both slump to the floor. RGGH! Bjeorn's roar can only just be heard over the sound of General Quarters.

[Alyena]

[00:00:28 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2

Alyena steps through the Control room door into the corridor. At the rate Bjeorn is going there's not much point cleansing this area.

~~Mindlink~~

"I'll save cleansing 'til it looks like we're actually going to be in magic combat. If anyone thinks they need it sooner just yell"

Following Bjeorn towards the stairs, she sees the guards Ryl warned were incoming.
Nice to have such competent Matrix over-watch again she thinks as she readies a stun bolt, just in case Bjeorn needs help.

As the sound of heads connecting and a bear's roar are lost in the noise of the alarms, she moves forward.

The spell's energies fade Nope, doesn't look like any help is needed she thinks, stepping over the prone figures.

~~Mindlink~~

"Ok Team Alpha, looks like we're on our way!"

[sabs]

[00:00:28 21 Jun 2070 - Reactor Control Room]
Background count: Aztech 2

Marduk was already halfway down the hallway when Bjeorn ran past him and clobbered those two guards. Shaking his head, the old dwarf kept moving, the layout of the pyramid as familiar to him, as his own home. He was a little distracted from the effort of sustaining the spell he had cast.

~~~ML~~~
Bjeorn let Aren scout ahead first.
~~~~~~

Marduk caught up to Bjeorn and moved up the hallway, making his way quickly towards Warder's room, Bjeorn slightly ahead and Alyena running besides.

~~~ML~~~
Aren how does it look ahead
~~~~~~

[Aria]

[00:00:28 21 Jun 2070 - Outside the Reactor Control Room]

Logged back into the secure matrix node Ryl began to plot the locations of the guards onto the team's tactical feeds, watching as Aren, Marduk and Bjeorn forged ahead towards where hopefully Warder waited for them. She reached out tendrils of her icon, searching for door controls and anything else that might smooth their passage through the temple.

<<The child that I mentioned sent me this

{THE RESEARCH FLOOR ABOVE THE MAIN WAY IN, BELOW THE MAIN TEMPLE. ROOM 12. YOU WILL NEED TO CARRY HER. BRING SOMETHING WITH A ROBOT ARM OR A DEMOLITIONS EXPERT}

I think we should do all in our power to assist her, provided it doesn't compromise our mission...and we have Bjeorn for any impromtu demo work...>>

[pbangarth]

[00:00:31 21 Jun 2070 - Outside Reactor Control Room]

Seeing nothing in the room ahead, Mandala makes his way to the room marked 27A and studies the door, both physically and astrally.

[Aria]

[00:00:31 21 Jun 2070 - Storeroom opposite 27a]

Ryl pondered the latest message from the illusive Zero, it seemed likely that they would find her soon as she had had to cancel the initial alarm when she first breached their system...

{JONATHAN'S COMING. HE'S THE BEST. HE WILL FIND YOU. PLEASE DON'T HURT HIM. HE'S NICE}

It seemed it was time to take off the kid gloves and ravage their system...with what was going on outside this should buy them the most time to enact their plan, and at least should would be able to turn the system's own defences against her attackers. She set about deleting the access log files, leaving only her own forged ID in place, and then ramped up the threat level, activating all the IC programs she could get her digital claws into.

<<Zero, can you help me to talk to Jonathan, warn him to stay away? I'm working on a way to free Her but it will be difficult if the spiders come for me...>>

Slamming all the internal doors to locked she simultaneously targetted all the Aztech troops as hostile on their tacnet system, let them come and find her now!

Her icon swelled in size as she ramped up the resolution, drawing on the node's own system processing, and roared her challenge to the winds...!

~They are coming, be ready!~

[Big Fella]

[00:00:25 21 Jun 2070 - Room 5 - Warder's room]
Background count: Aztech 4

Bjeorn studies the door. The door looks at Bjeorn. The door appears to be made of wood and metal and seems to be locked. As well as the door though there was hugely unpleasant looking ward: very similar to the one that guarded the reactor area. Concentrating hard on making aura look like Warders, Bjeorn shoulder barges the door and burst inside.

In the room, there are two very suprised looking guards, who are currently adjusting their headgear, and saying "hello...hello...".

Behind the guards is a tall dark figure, dressed in ritual robes of flayed human skin, with mummified hands dangling from his belt. He is currently performing a little ritual involving a baby skull and a hammer.

"You are early. You made better time than my master anticipated. Never mind, when I take him your flayed corpses he will reward me. This fully operational Battle Pyramid is more than a match for your pathetic skills."

Bjeorn winces at the bad pun, he'd didn't like that old film the first time round

[Alyena]

[00:00:33 21 Jun 2070 - Outside Room 5]
Background count: Aztech 4

Alyena follows Bjeorn and Marduk up the stairs to door 5. So far the corridor ahead is clear but getting into the room and out of sight seems like a good idea. The rather nasty ward in the way is a bit of a problem. The door itself, however, is not, as Bjeorn follows through with his usual MO.

Alyena focuses her will and shudders as she forces her aura to mimic that of Warder. She moves into the room, it really does leave a bad taste in the mouth as she quickly drops the mask.

Not good, very not good! she thinks as Warder's words reach her.


<Bad news... It seems we're expected!>

With her astral sight active she can see the magic wall surrounding Warder. Dropping behind one of the comfortable chairs in the corner of the room Alyena's spirit breaks free of her body.

Time to get to work and figure out just what is going on here she thinks as she assences the area.

She then begins to weave a counter spell. The smokey tendrils of her armour swirl around her astral form and reach towards her foe.

[Seth]

[ 00:00:33 21 Jun 2070 - Second floor]
Background count: Aztech 4

Aren finally reports. <<The ground floor is as per the tactical map. I am heading for room 12...argghhh>> the sound of machine gun fire can be heard over the comms, then the comm link stops transmitting.

[pbangarth]

[00:00:33 21 Jun 2070 - Outside Room 27A]
Background count 0 -- Force 9: all Spirit Powers available

Mandala observes the horror construct, considering what action to take when the agonizing impression of Aren's injury tears him away from the ghastly sight.

~~ML~~
Aren! I come!
~~~~~

He dematerializes, reforming his astral signature to be that of Warder. Who knows what barriers he will have to cross? At the speed of thought he rushes up the stairs, hoping to avoid having to waste time fooling a barrier in the floor itself.

[00:00:36 21 Jun 2070 - stairs to ground floor]
Background count Aztech 4 -- Force 6: lose Movement, Psychokinesis, Accident

As he rushes up the narrow passage, he sees six enemy coming the other way. One seems magic. He looks closely at that one.

~~ML~~
Six coming down the stairs, one magic... more info to come in a moment...
~~~~~