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

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?"

[animusnpcs]

Riki's eyes fall on Enoch. For the moment, Riki seems nonhostile but annoyed. "Working. Or I was."

[notayoungkitten]

So much for the initial plan.

But Ocelot isn't one to be easily threatened, even when things don't go as expected. She stays with her group, moving almost unconsciously to block Xion with her body as she steps forward, her arms folded across her chest.

Riki isn't immediately hostile, so she isn't going to be, either. But there's a tenseness to her stance just the same. Her team hadn't been able to find out what he had been working on, which put them at something of a severe disadvantage.

She doesn't speak immediately, instead giving a long look at Enoch. They can't give away too much right off the bat, after all. Not before they know more, but at least this puts some attention on her and away from people who might be better suited for trying to distract him.

[slightlyoblivious]

"I don't think anyone is doubting that."

There's still a bit of residual tension left in Yukiko's voice, but the urge to laugh that she had earlier is now gone. She takes a deep breath, blowing it out slowly before she continues. Time to tread lightly with questions.

"Can we ask what you're working on?"

[animusnpcs]

"That machine." Riki gestures vaguely to the towering maze of metal behind him before elaborating. "I was trying to repair it. Before all my equipment shut down. No idea why that happened."

[brbtalkingtogod]

"What?" Lucifel raised an eyebrow at Riki, not calling him out in question but in suspicion. "Hasn't it been in use just now?"

[animusnpcs]

"Not at full capacity," Riki explains, folding his arms across his chest. "I can make improvements."

[keybearer]

Riku's brow arches, as he glances to the machine. No need to act immediately suspicious, lest they clue Riki in on what they know. Repairing a machine is nice and vague. He can work with this. And so, he raises the next big question.

"So, what's this machine supposed to do?"

It's said with a light sort of tone, like he's genuinely interested in Riki's work. And, to be fair, he is curious about the whole situation.

[animusnpcs]

"Zo uses it to bring people in, so at full capacity maybe it can do more with that. Of course, now I'm standing around in the dark and not working on it."

[attheclocktower]

So far Xion's been watching, like a deer in the headlights. Reno told her not to confront him, but she ends up speaking before she's really aware what she's saying.

"Why?" she asks, her voice hurt and confused and upset, "What do you want to do with it?" With us? With the Tower? With everything.

[animusnpcs]

"What do you think I'd be doing with a machine that can connect to your worlds?" Riki asks, seeming to grow more impatient.

[midgarhorizon]

Reno stopped walking toward Enoch and the others, turned around and shot a dark look in Xion's direction. Great.

"Maybe a better question is what do you think it will do? Think this thing will fix our homes?" He turned back to face Riki; he would talk with Xion later. "I'd like to think you're helpin' us, Riki."

[animusnpcs]

"Can't be a hundred percent sure. Expect it to be able to manipulate your worlds, at least."

[evokingfool]

Minato watched, and listened, in silence from his spot in roughly the middle of the group. At Riki's response, his own question seems almost like a natural lead up.

"So that means it can possibly manipulate our worlds back to normal?"

[keybearer]

Riku nods, squeezing his right hand into a fist. "If that's what it takes, then we're on your side. Anything to get our worlds back." Assuming this isn't another ruse.

He's not going to jump to any conclusions just yet. Still, no need to act suspicious, right? While he waits for a response, Riku eyes the others, waiting to see what they'll do. This almost sounds too good to be true.

[puppy_lancer]

Manipulate. Lancer doesn't like the sound of that word.

"...Well, there's nothing you could do to mess them up even worse."

Just the smallest bit of killing intent bleeds through his words.

[animusnpcs]

"If it can do that, it's possible. That's why I was improving it. Now that you've gotten down here and shut everything down, it's going to take me some time to boot everything back up, so if you have your answers, you should go back upstairs."

[the_white_rider]

Their worlds-- This was all very interesting, but something they knew was that Riki was particularly interested in this tower. Gandalf doubted he acted out of pure benevolence and pity.

"And what do you have to gain in this?"

[animusnpcs]

"I don't want you guys blowing up the Tower or something," Riki said. "You guys like doin' stuff like that."

[puppy_lancer]

"Hey! That was Jason!"

Lancer makes a face at Riki.

[midgarhorizon]

"You know we didn't blow up the Tower." Reno didn't want to leave without asking this one. "Why did you lie to us about why you needed the energy? Was it because of Ruana finding out?" And then, something occurs to him and he speaks quickly. "Why aren't ya trying to fix the Tower's power cores instead? Tower's your baby, isn't it? It's going down in little over a month and you're focusing on us?"

[notayoungkitten]

"Funny you would say that. The story I heard was that it was never us to begin with. How would we get access to real explosives anyway when we can't even get real weapons?"

[imperialsun]

"...Besides, it's not like you're giving us a reason not to, even if we did."

Seriously, stay here and endure all of the testing and the countdown? What had she expected?

[animusnpcs]

"I didn't mean you actually blew up the Tower," Riki said, sighing a little. "It wasn't literal, it was just something you guys'd do."

He looks to Reno next. "The power cores aren't fixable with what technology exists here right now. As for the energy, Jason's explosion made me think that was what it was needed for."