towerofanimus | Ex Machina; Infiltration

Entry tags:

Ex Machina; Infiltration

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.

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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?

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.

I know. I know, I... *He shakes his head. He should have thought of that much on his own, really. He's never been quite so nervous...*

...Yes, I and anyone with me will wait, of course. It's likely he'll notice when the machines are tampered with, so...so surely we must be ready.

Yeah, I can help with distraction when we need to get him out.

[Reno's unusually serious, even for a mission. This is down to the wire with a meteor hanging over their heads... he knows they can't screw it up.]

We got a score to settle with him about September. 'Intellectually interesting to restore the worlds' my ass.

[As for plans...]

Best method I can think of is outright attacking him or create some kind of disturbance he'd have to go investigate. Any way we do it, last thing we want to do is look like a distraction.

*Enoch visibly shudders at the mention of that. That week, that room, the utter isolation...*

I...I plan to talk to him. It might seem suspicious to you but I've made it a habit of trying to open communication with them so often I think he might not suspect me. If we draw him far enough, it may be too late for him even if he does come to suspect.

*He takes a deep breath, forcing himself to look at the situation.* Once the others are behind us... *what? What kind of disturbance could they make?*

No, I'm right behind you on that. I was thinkin' the same thing. For all we know he might be tryin' to restore things right now, or fuck, he might be trying to revive the power cores. Askin' him what the fuck he's going, he might answer, y'know?

[Reno's sort of at a loss to the disturbance, too, just give him a second...]

Lemme think. The plan of action is the terminals are supposed to go down first, right? Then we hit all the stops with the distraction and get him outta there.

[Stupid idea time!]

I'd do anything for a watergun right now...

*Don't make him laugh or they'll have their distraction all too soon!

But he's on to something, at least. Keeping it simple is the way to make it not seem contrived. So why not the simplest of them all?*

If our means is conversation...we could retreat some ways and call out to him as if we are trying to find him, couldn't we?

I was thinkin' that's probably the best way we can do it. Not too obvious, open, kinda like we were lookin' for him?

[It makes sense in an insidious kind of way, but there's a lot hat could go wrong, too.]

Yeah... I mean, we've been real cooperative with him doing that energy shtick, why wouldn't he respond? At least just to get us outta the way.

*There always was. There always was risk - Riki could simply attack them where they stood, for instance. But distractions that seemed incidental were few.*

Yes...and I don't believe he knows we've found his deception. That could work in our favor.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot we've been able to keep things secret from 'em. He probably doesn't unless he's a lot more resourceful than we thought. And we lie our heads off 'bout how we got down here, at least provided he doesn't kill us.

[A beat.]

Might be our best chance. We're probably batpants insane for doing this, but I got nothin' else.

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[Lancer nods.]

I'd help. Playing with computers really isn't my specialty anyways.

All right... *Given what Zelda and Reno have contributed...* Ah...once they're done, we need to create a disturbance that appears to be incidental, and draw him to us. We can stall him there with conversation until Aria's people have done their work.

[He scratches his head.]

And any idea on what the disturbance can be? If not, I guess I can try...doing something.

...Give me a moment.

*He goes to consult with Reno, and soon returns.* Since the distraction will be conversation, our disturbance might as well be calling out to him.

Hm...ask him a few questions, perhaps? Or make him judge for some argument we're having?

I doubt he'd be willing to judge in an argument. But questions are things he'd expect...especially any questions about the current state of the tower. The lack of response to requests, the cafeteria, the disappearance of the monsters...the state of world restoration research.

Then we should ask him all of those. And make him tell us the details.

[It'll serve both to distract Riki and get them information.]

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I'll do what I can. Just gotta know what you'll need me to do first.

[He hums, bringing his hand below his chin.]

I've got time spells that can freeze people, but I don't know how effective they'd be on Riki. I could offer offensive power, but I feel like if a fight breaks out, it could ruin everything.

*Now that people have chimed in, he's clearly feeling far more secure. The hesitation he's answered the others with is gone when he speaks to Riku.*

So far, the plan appears to be to act as if we were searching for him to speak with him. He doesn't know we've discovered his deception, and may feel confident in approaching us. Then we can stall him with conversation. There is a risk, but...isn't there always?

Hmm, so no magic, then. I can work with that. Means less of a risk of damaging the place, anyway.

[They'll just have to stay on guard and hope that Riki doesn't try to pull any fast ones. He's already pulled the wool over their eyes once before.]

You know how many are tagging along for this?

Hmm...Reno, Lancer...myself and yourself... Perhaps four or five, maybe six. *Some people hadn't voiced an opinion, after all.* Enough to be considered a normal infiltration group.

*That is, it wouldn't arouse suspicion beyond them being down here in the first place.*

Six might be a good place to cap it. It's still fairly large, but at least we won't be bringing in a whole army.

[Bring too many people, and Riki may think they wish to attack him. Not exactly the brightest idea in his book.]

*Enoch nods. Certainly, many people would have questions for him, and a mass trip downstairs would be feasible given he likely knows about Aria - or knows there is a retrieval unit helping residents - but the more people there, the more threatening it will seem even if all of them try to act as benign as possible.*

I wouldn't want to refuse anyone, but...we will see how many of us there are, by the time the others are done with the terminals.

Once we've figured out what the terminals do...I don't mind throwing a Persona or two as a distraction.

[Nothing says NAKED DEMON GUY to make someone look the other way...right?]

Ah...he would take that as an attack, I think. We must draw him out of the room somehow, not provoke him to search for intruders or fight someone inside or near it.

So far, we've been considering simply retreating a ways and calling out to him as if we've come down to meet him, and stall him with conversation. But we don't have an alternative in case we can't be innocent-seeming...

*After all, if he notices the other people in the room first, how are they going to get him out of there? If they call his name then, they might as well be shouting "We need you to leave the room"...*

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