Ex Machina; Infiltration

[animusmods]

Characters: Riki and the infiltration team
Setting: administrative levels
Format: any
Summary: Riki's efforts must be sabotaged. Stealth is the name of the game and time is of the essence.
Warnings: psychological horror

Though the chipped unit does not follow, he sees to it that the team advances the rest of the way. At the end of the lit corridor is a set of double doors, heavy-duty polished metal with small windows set into each one.

Through the windows, a massive machine is visible, connected to thousands of holographic screens that are hard to make out at the speed at which they're being manipulated. The machine sits in the center of the room and is networked to four elaborate terminals stationed along the walls via a complex tangle of panels, wires, and towers. Each of these terminals controls its own set of floating screens; the sheer amount of holographic monitors in the room is disorienting, and really, it's hard to tell what's connected to what.

In the chair in the middle of the enormous set-up is Riki, maneuvering all of the screens with the same ease with which most people breathe. His back is to the doors that lead into the room, and for the moment, he is utterly engrossed in his work.

Comments

ARRIVAL

[animusmods]

This is the team's last chance to finalize their plan before they open the doors and enter the room proper.

[megazero_to_superhero]

[Guess who hadn't attended the sleepover. But he's been in the hideout a lot, studying and figuring out what information is available from Reno's notes to try and figure out how to go about this.]

[David has some ideas, though. He turns and looks back at some of the other assembled members of the infiltration team, engaging his powered armor suit's flight systems—kicking him upward into the air by a good foot or so.]

Arright, who else has stealth powers? Or invisibility?

[stitchedupbodyguard]

[Veronica glances over at the armoured man, less surprised than she should be by the fact it could fly.]

I don't think anyone here has powers like that. I was trained to sneak really well though.

[ninjainviolet]

[Sheena had been scouting the group, searching for any familiar faces when she hears a now familiar voice. Turning, she nods to him before heading over.]

I don't exactly have stealth powers, but I am a ninja. I was trained for something like this.

[evokingfool]

[Decked out in his usual gear, Minato paused and looked over at where he heard David's voice.]

...No powers like those. Just some standard sneaking in quietly ones.

[no_longer_a_king]

I apologize, but no.

[And she looks David up and down.]

Are you sure you can go unnoticed flying so?

[stitchedupbodyguard]

[Sneaking was one of Veronica's specialties, and she had come to the infiltration more than prepared. In the dark of the administrative levels, Veronica's cloak blended in, hopefully making her less likely to be spotted. Unlike the other times she was usually required to sneak around, she wasn't planning on killing anyone. Though she would if she had to.]

Okay. [She whispered to the rest of the group. Can't be too careful.] We should probably go in teams. Each one go to a different terminal if we can.

[slightlyoblivious]

Agreed. I think splitting up is the best option. I'm not great with computers, but I can at least poke at it and see what happens.

...and if it comes down to it and someone needs it, my magic's mostly back. I can heal, if we need it.

[warriorscribe]

I'm willing to distract Riki. He might even...not be surprised that I would talk to him, I think.

*There's one more thing he wants to say anyway. One more shot. Because the tower's restoration isn't out of the question for them either.*

Would anyone be willing to do so with me? And if so, how could we go about this without drawing his attention to the others?

[sageprincess]

You wait until we are done with the terminals.

[Zelda sounds extremely stern, even with whispering.]

We cannot afford to fail here. Riki looks already well absorbed in whatever he is doing. He does not need to be distracted until we have to draw him out of the room.

[attheclocktower]

[Xion's nervous, and it's written all over her face. But, even knowing the plan, there's still... she's selfish for considering this but... it's important. Not just to her.]

As well as shutting down the terminals... we should try as much as we can to figure out what he's trying to do. And... and if possible, how we can replicate it or something like it ourselves. If we need to.

[She's doesn't know how conditions have begun to deteriorate upstairs, and she's still convinced this might be about restoring the Tower. Finding out how to restore it isn't making a decision on what she should do. So it was safe. Safer, at least.

Even though she can tell, just looking at all the monitors through the window, that her suggestion is going to be a daunting task, at best.]

[keybearer]

Just to be sure, nobody's actually planning on killing Riki, right?

[A deep frown cuts across Riku's face, and he pulls his arms over his chest.]

I feel like, no matter what happens, we should be careful about what we do with him. I think we'd face better odds trying to sort out what he's planning before we do anything rash. Not that I trust the guy, but time's running short, and Riki is the guy with the most technical know-how.

[notachickenhawk]

[Tobias reaches out to talk to everyone in the group at once. Thought-speak is so useful. Sorry about sudden telepathy, people he doesn't know.]

<Technology's not my thing, but I can run distraction. Just let me know what kind we'll need and I can pick a morph.]

[morphballin]

If things go south and talking fails, I will do my best to cover those who need to get out. I don't have all my firepower, but I'm pretty light on my feet and can hopefully make him pay attention to me long enough for priority people to get clear.

[Samus folds her arms, and looks quite determined to throw herself into the line of fire if necessary.]

[ninjainviolet]

I can help with either the computers or the distraction--wherever anyone needs me to be.

[There's a hint of steel in her voice because she's not too happy about being lied to by Riki all those weeks ago. And she really wants answers--everyone who participated deserves that much.]

FIRST TERMINAL

[animusmods]

A faint blue glow emanates from the primary monitor of the first terminal. The holographic screens don't cease in their movements as they are approached, rendering them impossible to make out. The primary monitor remains stationary, but all of the text flashing by isn't in any language the characters know.

Team... is it a team?

[stitchedupbodyguard]

[Already a stealthy one, Veronica easily moves across the room towards the first terminal she saw. Every so often she glanced around her, checking for anyone around her, and for anyone that could be called her "teammates" on this mission.

It wasn't like she expected the terminals to look any different from the others in the tower. Honestly, she wasn't sure what to expect anymore. As she finally came up to it, she knew to expect even less.

She had no idea what to do here. Whatever was on the screen was in a language she couldn't even describe. With a language barrier in place, Veronica turned her focus on the controls, seeing if maybe she could use those instead. There had to be something she could use, right?]

SECOND TERMINAL

[animusmods]

A faint blue glow emanates from the primary monitor of the second terminal. The holographic screens don't cease in their movements as they are approached, rendering them impossible to make out. The primary monitor remains stationary, but all of the text flashing by isn't in any language the characters know.

Team Three Men and a Baby

[attheclocktower]

[Xion's used to working stealthily at least. She slips her way through the room, over towards the second terminal, frequently checking behind her to see if the others were still there, raising a hand and indicating her destination. Once she gets there, she sets right to work.

The terminal's interface is identical to the ones upstairs. She arranges the keyboard and touchpad to her liking, then looks up at the primary monitor itself. The other screens are impossible to make out and the language barrier... there's no time to even try to crack it. Xion grimaces.

She remembers how Mitchell's terminal blew up when he'd tried to hack Riki's files over a month ago. Anything too big that she does could be dangerous. She needs to save her obtrusive things for actually shutting the terminal down. For now she tries to see what onscreen she can interact with, if she can minimize the current tasks and see what other ones are running.]

THIRD TERMINAL

[animusmods]

A faint blue glow emanates from the primary monitor of the third terminal. The holographic screens don't cease in their movements as they are approached, rendering them impossible to make out. The primary monitor remains stationary, but all of the text flashing by isn't in any language the characters know.

Team Knights

[sageprincess]

[Getting to the terminal quietly isn't a problem for this group. One they're there, though... That certainly isn't a language Zelda knows.

This could be trickier than anticipated.

Kneeling as to not accidentally cast shadows from the pale light of the monitor, she looks to the rest of her group with a quirked eyebrow. How do you want to tackle this, guys?]

FOURTH TERMINAL

[animusmods]

A faint blue glow emanates from the primary monitor of the fourth terminal. The holographic screens don't cease in their movements as they are approached, rendering them impossible to make out. The primary monitor remains stationary, but all of the text flashing by isn't in any language the characters know.

Team... hey, well, he's not really on a team

[greyerrant]

[ Garviel has removed his power armor, and moves quietly towards the fourth terminal in a hunch, ghosted by the green-armored, silent phantasm that is the Persona which is all that remains of his brother. Taking advantage of the distractions, and his own innate hunter's training which was honed spending 6 months on a hostile, demon haunted world to move in stealth. ]

RIKI

[animusmods]

Upon deactivation of all terminals, the room goes startlingly dark--it seems like, rather than all four handling different tasks, all of them were redundant backup systems for his work. Thus, it's only now that he reacts, as all his systems shut down and his work grinds to a halt.

A set of red lights flickers to life, and Riki is lit in eerie crimson. He doesn't seem to need as much light as a regular human would to see, however, because he looks around the room with accuracy.

"What are you doing down here?"

TEAM DISTRACTION, CHANGE OF PLANS!

[warriorscribe]

Well, so much for acting innocuous. Enoch opens the door, having lingered outside with the rest of his group to wait for the other teams. If he can't lead Riki out easily, he can at least draw his attention, as he and Reno agreed.

"We could ask you the same thing. What are you doing?"