Cosmo simply nodded slowly in return. "Oh yeah, you totally said that back up at the warehouse, man... my bad, my bad... I definitely gotta lay off the toaster stru..." it was only then that he realized she was already getting her ID made. It didn't seem to phase him, though. Instead, he just continued to stand there, apparently waiting to see what was next.

James sidles up to the guard for his ID finally.

He smiles before drawling "James Dean," and tipping an imaginary stetson.

"So, not so local, and we might be bringing vehicles underground. Any chance you've invented a working teleportation system? Or is there magic involved?"

"No to both questions, trust me when I say, you wouldn't believe me, you will just have to see for yourself."

Alex smiles as the last runner gets a badge. "Through here folks." He opens one of the doors and herds you all inside. The room you enter is a locker room. About 60 lockers line the floors and middle area.

"This is where you are welcome to store any gear or personal items you don't want to take with you. You simply swipe your card into an empty locker," he demonstrates as he talks, "like so. And it will key itself to you."

At the far end of the room is another door which he leads everyone through. It opens into a completely bare room, all white. Only three doors lead from this room. One opposite of where you came through, and one to the left.

"The door over there," he points to the one opposite, "leads to the living quarters. This here is the scanning room. Basically the computer scans everyone who passes through here and makes sure you are who you say you are.”

He opens the far door for a second to show the living quarters. It is a long hallway with many doors leading off either side. “It isn’t the Ritz but it will do in a pinch.”

He closes the door and opens the other one. He follows everyone into the hallway, “If you have any questions feel free to ask, off to our left here is the Security Room, from here we have a staff of 12 guards on six hour shifts who watch pretty much everything. There armed only with stun weapons, were not to worried about an assault from above.”

"What kind of assult are you worried about?"

"Well, it's not that it isn't a possibility, Cougar. It's that it is unlikely. Security is here more to protect us from infiltrators. You have no idea what I am about to show you and if the rest of the corporate world had a clue, they would stop at nothing to posses it. So secrecy is our best protection, the guards help us maintain that."

A few lab coated technicians walk by and smile at the runners, though they give the group a wide birth.

Cougar nods calmly in reply, but inside his interest and curriosity are starting to get the best of him.

Ran followed the little procession, busily trying to figure out what could possibly be going on this far underground. The operation was massive. Alot of money, time, and effort had gone into this.
Not to mention the massively pleased look on their employer's face as he led them through the insignificant details of the compound. Alex was definitely savoring his little secret, waiting until the absolute last moment to reveal all.
She wouldn't be surprised it he produced a camera at that future moment and took snapshots of all of their expressions, and then stood around giggling with the guards..

The hallway continues down and turns right, then left. “This is our dining facility, we have a really good chef, she specializes in Pizza and Bacon Cheeseburgers,” he says with a chuckle.

A few more twists and turns lead to a set of two double doors. One reads ‘Embarkation Room’, the other ‘Infirmary’.

“This is our SOTA med facility, you can do everything in here up to an including installing beta ‘ware.” He passes his hand over the door reader and they slide open silently. Inside are 12 beds with scanners and full kits.

“I wont go into detail but it's pretty sweet, or so I am told by our resident doc. This,” he points to the other door, “is the Embarkation Room. This is where the bulk of your missions will start from.” He grins for a moment, “let me show you.”

Embarkation room, 40 metres under the ground? Where the hell are we embarking to? An underground city? The thought gives Os a reason for pause. Now that would be impressive.

Cosmo took up the rear, more out of necessity than choice. "Man," he pondered to himself as he mosied along, "why do they always paint hallways this color? It's, like, some kind of global super-conspiracy by the paint companies or sumfin'."

From near-potential corporate war to cheeseburgers to SOTA beta-clinics....

Whisper could do nothing but raise an eyebrow as the lot of them strode down this hallway, each twist, every turn bringing them closer to their objective in nearly perfect sync with their 'guide's meandering speech. She despised being lead by the nose .. strung along like a puppy on a leash when someone clearly knew more than she and refused to share their information ... but there was no helping it this time. Steady hands, unflappable calm, and infinite patience were the watchwords of her vocation, after all.

Still, she looked straight ahead, head tilted to one side as she considered all she'd studied about their local geography, wondering what could be so far beneath the mean streets of Seattle that a facility of this size and sophistication should spring up around it. Before she'd realized what she was doing, Whisper began a full spectral analysis of their location, opening sight, scent, and hearing to all that was unfolding before them. The slip-up was met with a seemingly random chuckle, a faint flush, and a quick adjustment of her glasses.

Embarkation room? That sounds like a room to prepare for leaving on a mission. Strange that they would put it underground and so far from the exit... unless we would be going someplace else. A tunnel perhaps?

Gate Technologies... perhaps they have found a way to magically create a spirit gate and want us to travel into the spirit world for them. No. It could not be that. Not everyone here is awakened.

I have no idea where this is leading, and I do not like it at all.

Quite the showman are you not? Perhaps they have found a way to send us to hell without killing us. Wouldn't that be a feat, Ozaku?

Ghost Dragon follows the group, bringing up the rear. He frowns with discontentment and says nothing. With his last thought, a slight smile of amusement crosses his lips, and then it grows into a evil grin. The grin stays for a few seconds, and then it fades back into a frown.

You still have yet to tell us why we are here.

Torque nearly salivates seeing the gear inside the med lab.

A full Beta Clinic. They have a full Beta Clinic. Doesn't that make me completely redundant? What could they possibly be doing this deep underground? I remember reading a book by Heinlein once where they dug a tunnel under the surface of the Moon and actually flew semiballistics through it on a predefined course. I'm starting to wonder if they haven't managed something similar here. No teleportation, and no submarines, yet they are going to send us somewhere. From underground.

The big double doors open, and unlike the other doors in the facility they are three feet thick and made of reinforced steel.

Inside the room is bare. The walls are of the same marble as the rest of the facility. A large set of doors immediately to the left read, ‘To Motor Pool’. The room is about 60 feet long and looks very solid. Once everyone is in, the doors shut. The wall on the right, toward the other end of the room, lifts up revealing a control booth of some kind. Alex waves to them and points to the end of the room. The apparently empty, end of the room.

“Sixty years ago the US government ran a secret program called Project Stargate. When Ares purchased NASA they got the equipment associated with the project but none of the files. Apparently any benefits reaped by this program remained in the possession of the US government. A few years ago I was assigned to run a program that catalogued the mega’s inventory of ‘special’ equipment. And I found the Stargate, it wasn’t a program, but a device.”

Alex points to the far end of the room. The whir of electronics echoes in the hall as a device raises out of the floor against the far wall. It is circular in shape, and big, about six meters wide. It has an open center so it looks like a tire without a rim. Spaced evenly along the inner most track are strange symbols. The only other thing that breaks up the circle itself are nine triangles, or chevrons, each one with it’s tip pointed toward the interior.

The Stargate settles on it’s platform, a raised dais about one meter high. A voice echoes over the intercom,

"Ready to begin the dialing procedure sir."

Alex nods. “It took me forever to figure out what the hell it is, but with the help of a scientist who I recruited into the project we were able to. This is the big secret, and my lifes work."


"It is a gate way to other worlds."

"Jesus," Os says in quiet awe, looking up at the Stargate. "Other worlds, huh? How far away, do you know?"

"Oh crap. One world isn't enough to pollute and fight over? Now we have more than two? You did says worlds right? When do we go through?"

Other worlds?? If they are calling it 'stargate', then he must mean mundane worlds. I wonder if taking this job was such a good idea. Sending me with this bunch of miscreants? Hopefully, they will give us some small unit training before we go, just so we can work as a team. Probably too much to expect.

Ghost Dragon is in awe for but a moment before his practiced professional manner takes over. He regains his composure more quickly than the rest and starts asking questions.

"So, you call it a 'stargate'. It allows you to travel - us to travel - to other planets correct? How does it work? Which planets have you travelled to, and which ones do you plan to travel to? Are we scouting for life, like the astronauts of NASA used to, or do you know for a fact that there is life where we are going? If we find life, what do you want us to do with it?"

Whisper stood stock still and zoomed in on the 'gate, wondering exactly how it would transport them anywhere, much less to another planet. Since her immediate questions had been pretty much covered, she focused more closely on the Stargate gathering what evidence she could while keeping half an ear open to the stacatto burst of questions that Alex would have to field.

Of course they'd send the very best representatives of our culture to these new worlds, wouldn't they? He doesn't want us to travel here to make peacable contact .. he wouldn't have called us if he did. Has he been through, I wonder?

The scarecrow-thin dwarf is sort of just standing there as usual, chewing idly on a burrito as he stares at the stargate.

"So how's it, like, work and stuff?"

“As you can imagine this is the big secret. We want to be the ones to explore new worlds and see what’s out there. Imagine the questions we can answer. And if we do it right, we can secure a place in the history books.”

“Now we don’t know how far it goes. When you open it, there is no way for us to tell where the other end is, other than to step through, and no one has done that yet. Once we were able to solve the power problems we were able to create a stable wormhole, we sent a drone through. We will have the images available later today.

“What we need you for is to go through and see with your eyes and ears what is on the other side. As you can imagine runners are perfect for this. You are highly trained, competent, and most of all, expendable. If we were to use employees on the books and something happened to them, we would have to explain to our corporate masters what happened. And that is something we can’t do easily without taking a chance on revealing the gate. We only have one address, and as you can see,” Alex leads the group closer to the immense gate.

“It has many symbols, you only use seven of them for any one address. So we are looking at over two billion addresses. And we only have one. So your first mission will be to get us more addresses. For now though I imagine you guys need some time to comprehend all this, any other questions?”

Whisper smiled slowly; her grandfather would have loved this. 'To seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go....

Her soft voice piped up almost immediately, "and how will we 'phone home,' a-as it were?"

"Another good question, I knew you folks were bright." He says with a self congratulatory tone.

"There are two pieces of technology involved here. The Stargate, and a device we have come to call, a DHD. Or a Dial-Home-Device. We have one wired up to the main computer otherwise I would show you. We have the process automated and it seems to work pretty well. The two are connected so it seems unlikely that there wouldn't be one without the other. The one place we have managed to get to has one, we checked."

Ran is still and silent during the entire exchange, carefully considering the odd device that has been so ceremoniously presented them. Her expression is vaguely concerned, as though she feels she's been had, but isn't sure exactly how.
Her initial, momentary reaction is incredulity, and then anger at her wasted time. Once that flickers past, she realizes that Alex, and all of the white coated drones in the control room, believe every word he is saying.
Dragons, elves, magic. Those are all simple enough to comprehend. They are, after all, part of the world she had been born to. This is not.

Suddenly there are a dozen questions she wants to ask. Instead, she carefully picks one.

"Do you have any information at all remaining from the original Stargate program?"

"Unfortunately all we were able to find is the gate. A separate discovery got us the DHD and the one address we have. Apparently whoever built these devices visited our world along time ago, as in thousands of years. And they haven't been back since. A search of all archeological materials ever catalogued revealed as piece of cloth in the Russian Confederation national museum. On it were symbols that matched our gate. Now they had no idea what it was they were dealing with, we do. So we bought it and have it here. That is how we got our address to dial."

"So, like, you don't know if anything you send through actually winds up anywhere or anything? If so, that's soooo not cool, man. Especially if, you know, you like, expect us to go through and stuff."

"Like I said Cosmo, we were able to send a drone through and it took some pictures and confirmed that there was a gate and another DHD on the other side. And we do want you to go through, find us some more addresses, or anything we can use really, and come back in one piece."

The awe wears off, and Os starts considering the details.

"So, let me get this straight. We need an 'address' to get from one planet to the next, right? We have one address already, for another planet, another stargate, right? But once we've gone to that stargate, how exactly do we get back to this one? I mean, do we have the address for this gate here?" Os says, pointing towards the ring of metal.

"I, like, totally knew that man. I was just testing you and stuff."

Cosmo decides that now would be a good time to put his burrito away and focus on what's going on for a change. But how could he resist another bite from his delicious Tenochtitlán Flats breakfast burrito? Oh, the sweet agony. Tenochtitlán Flats. Life-or-death information. Tenochtitlán Flats. Life-or-death information. Cosmo blamed the monosodium glutamate. Damn monosodium glutamate. Damn it to hell! But somehow the little dwarf marshalled the strength to return the scrumptious, delectable, heavenly dish into his thermal fanny pack and sealed it closed.

Of course to everyone else, it looked like he just put it away while yawning a bit. It was a shame that no one would ever realize the epic battle of wills that went on before them this fateful Spring day of '64.

"But yeah, groovy. So, like, can we take a peep at these sensor feeds and stuff? And what kind of, uh, symbols and stuff are these? Any clue?"

Alex's smile falters a little at Os's question.

"The short answer is, no. But," he is quick to add, "we are confident once on the other side we will be able to decipher the symbols on the DHD and find the right address."


"So, right back the way we came and I will lead you guys to our SOTA briefing room," he points back to the door.

Noting Alex's sudden loss of composure, Os realises that he has just bitten down on the rotten core of all of this. He looks around the room, checking the other shadowrunners' expressions.

"There you have it ladies and gentlemen: the punchline."

"Well it isn't as bad as all that, it isn't like you can't come home, we just don't know exactly how to do it. And because of the nature of the portals, well there one way. So we can't open it from our end and then let you come back through. However if for some reason you were stuck for any length of time you would have our full support..." His voice trails off as another man enters the room. He is in his late fifties and has salt and pepper hair.

"Alex, I told you to tell them right away, now they know and may choose to back out." He turns to the group.

"My name is Markuhm Von Braun, you may call me Mark. I am the head scientist here. Belive me when I tell you we are telling you everything. And we want you to succeed. We can't keep the gate open long enough to get an accurate reading on the other side with our spider drone. So you see we have to send someone there who can decipher the script and dial the gate back."

Ghost Dragon listens as Alex speaks and says, "So.. you sent a drone through. What about spirits? Is there a mana flow on the other side of the gate, and if so, is it safe? If we find intelligent life on the other side, how should we deal with it?"

Ran frowns as a thought dawns on her.
They said they sent a drone through....

"A question, gentlemen." Ran clears her throat and turns to Alex and the man who has just introduced himself as Mark. Ran always got a good chuckle out of that name. Privately, of course. "Deciphering of symbols and dialing home aside, how do you have any way to know that this device was intended for the transport of organic material?"

Ran didn't watch a lot of vids, but nevertheless, a very old one suddenly, and grotesquely, sprung to mind. What had it been called? Something unimaginative about a flying insect. The Gnat? The Mosquito? Something...

Mark answers for Alex, "The atmosphere is perfectly safe, and the only life we saw on the other side are some palm tree's. We have no way of knowing if the mana flow exists on the other side, without sending a mage through. These are some of the questions we hope to get answered. As for organic material, we can only assume it is safe."

Ran experiences a brief flicker of irritation. It is well masked. At least until she opens her mouth.

"You can only assume that I won't come out on the other side resembling oatmeal?"

Alex turns to Mark and puts his hand on the older mans shoulder. "It's a valid concern Mark."

"I know, it just that we have no evidence that anything like that would happen, and the only purpose seems to be that it would transport people. However, the science team has been asking me to send Snoopy through, though I have been putting it off since we won't get him back."

He turns to address Ran. "If we send a dog though and he comes out okay, would that ease your mind, fraulein?"

Torque listens and considers.
Torque: "A dog is a good idea. Or a primate but I imagine any mammal will prove that organic matter can travel. However one thought occurs to me. You've clearly been able to open the gate and send a drone through. And since it sent back messages things can obviously come back. Can you not open the gate and have it come back through it? And if we must dial up home to come back, how are we going to do that? Perhaps somebody has deciphered the meanings of the symbols, if that's the case a knowsoft of them would be most useful to any team leaving Earth."
And in the meantime I'll keep looking for the hidden camera and wait for you to spring the punchline. How gullible do they think we are? Other planets through a ring hanging in midair indeed. This makes the idea of an underground spaceship seem downright logical.

Cougar remains quiet for the most part, just taking in everything that is said. He's muscle and he knows it, so he'll leave the questions up to the brains.

:grinbig:

"Well," Mark responded, "like I said, Gate Travel is one way. However energy, like radio signals can be transmitted both ways. So we can talk to you and visa versa." Mark leads the group to the briefing room as he speaks.

The room is shaped like a small theater with a large holographic fish tank where the screen would be. He has you each take a seat. The lights go down and the holo-tank lights up with a projection of the gate.

"These symbols, which you would believe are words to be translated are actually, star constellations."

The holographic gate zoom in to one symbol. A separate image lights up showing stars on a field of black. The symbol that is zoomed in moves and overlays several stars.

"Because we know the symbol for earth, we only have to figure out the other six symbols, and the order they go in. Which should be easy, really. All we need is for you to take detailed pictures of the DHD and send them back through. While we can't give you knowsofts, we can provide you with all the data you will need. Specifically we are hoping that Cosmo will be able to decipher them once on the other side."

James voice rises and then falls in tone, "Ohhkay.... So, dog goes through then we follow. Can we get this planned or are we being paid to adlib this interplanetary explorer stuff?"

He turns to the Execs.

"I want some heavy personal armor for myself and anyone else here who knows how to wear it, some fixed emplacements, maybe some remote fire BattleTac style shortrange artillery pieces so we can quickly pre-plot suppressive fire, and some serious supplies. Food, water, ammo packs, diapers, explosives, the works. An Ares Sentry trailer would be nice, the bigger a gun it mounts the better. Surface to air missiles. So Cosmo's the get-us-home expert. The indigenous Bug Spirits get to infest you next to last."

James nods to Cosmo, then looks around.

"Any one need anything else? Oh yeah, we need a truck or something to haul all this crap."

"Who what when where wha...?" Cosmo resembles a deer in the headlight. "Uhm, I'm, like, just a tech guy, dude. I don't know nuffin' 'bout no alien cryptography. Though, uhh, if we find some kind of Rosetta stone or sumfin', I guess I could... yanno... maybe figure sumfin' out. Especially if we can maintain a radio link through the... the, uh..." he points a chubby finger at the Stargate. "The big hoopy thing there."

Alex replies to James, "we have some light sec armor, and battle-tac, but we don't really have anything else. We can give you all the ammo and small arms you want, along with food and water, but we don't have, nor can we get any heavy weapons."

Mark raises his hand to get the groups attention, "We also can't keep the gate open long enough for a vehicle to go through, yet. At the time we can maintain a stable worm hole for seven seconds. Long enough for you to run through four at a time. But not long enough to drive a large vehicle through, yet. We are working on it."

Mark then turns to Cosmo, "Don't be shy Cosmo, you are a technical genius. Once on the other side our technicians here can help you decipher the DHD and dial the correct coordinates home. We have here," he pulls out of his pocket a small chip, "all the data we have on the symbols and what constellation they correlate to."

"Ooh." The dwarf plucks the chip out of Alex's hand and gives it a quick look over.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," the more animated part of his mind wistfully says to itself just before he struggles to slot it into one of his jacks to look over.

"BattleTac is good. I'll also take as much Ex-Ex Predator ammo that you can give me and a load of RangerX Arrows, dikoted."

Preston chimes in when they start talking about weapons.

"I'd like to get look at the data your drone has gathered before I go shopping on the company dime. Specifically: climate, terrain, noteable landmarks and prevailing weather conditions." He ticks the items off on his fingers as he speaks. "And just what is your projected op length here?"

"Every one can place your orders with me. I wanted to take a first hand look at the armory anyway. By the way, Alex, this diffinately qualifies for hazard pay."