towerofanimus | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't know about a password, but if we could read this... maybe put in 'decode' or 'decrypt'...?

Hmm...a password could be anything. I'll try asking it to decrypt itself first, I guess.

[Yukiko squints at the flashing prompt for a minute, before she types 'decrypt screen'.]

[The symbols do change -- to a different set of symbols, still unreadable by any of the group cloistered around the terminal.]

[....In hindsight, maybe they should have expected this much.]

Do you think we can get it to change to English?

Maybe. Maybe there's a way to get it to translate the way the terminals upstairs do.

[Yukiko takes a deep breath.]

translate text

[The symbols remain symbols.]

Where's the help desk when you need it...

[He clicks his tongue in annoyance, trying to resist his urge to just press on them and hope forthe best.]

If we can quickly figure out if there's a pattern. Every language has a set of rules, after all.

[There is no immediately discernible pattern; since they have to move quickly, they won't have enough time to decipher it.]

You can say that again.

[Yukiko sighs. They need to get something to happen.]

...I don't see a pattern to it. I know it's a crazy long shot, but maybe asking for some kind of system settings will do something?

system settings

[What comes up is in symbols -- though someone used to looking at computer system settings may notice that they do seem to be organized. Conceivably, it is pulling them up... in a language none of them to understand.

At least they can rest assured that the terminals are responding to the commands they're typing in.]

Edited (tenses) 2014-05-06 03:05 (UTC)

I think it worked... maybe.

[Ugh, this language barrier thing was a major problem.]

Should we click something?

It's worth a shot.

[Here goes nothing. Yukiko clicks on one in the middle, crossing her fingers.]

[He leans slightly forward to watch, watching the screen carefully. Even if they don't understand the symbols, they can still figure out a pattern.

Most computers have some basic applications and options on them...]

[What comes next are more symbols, just as illegible as the last batch. The flashing symbol indicating a command prompt appears again at the bottom of the screen, waiting for more orders.]

It's giving me another prompt...now's the time for a password, maybe? Or is this the shutdown screen?

[Yukiko frowns. She doesn't want to put in 'shutdown' and affect the entire tower by accident, but one terminal won't affect things too badly, right?]

Here goes nothing.

shutdown terminal

[The lights around them flicker into nothingness; slowly, the glow of the computer screen fades to black. There is, briefly, a sound not unlike the whirring of a computer fan...

...but it stops, and the group is left in silence and darkness.]

...huh. I didn't think that would work.

[Yukiko takes a long, deep breath and makes a mental note to take an actual computer class once she's back home. That had been something, all right.]

Okay. Let's try and figure out how to get back.

[Naoya gives Yukiko a silent thumbs up for the work. It's not exactly what they planned out to do but it might be useful in the long run?]

Yeah, good idea.

[Veronica stared at the blackened screens, her gaze shifting from them to the symbols she had scribbled down. Their work here was done but... was that it? What did all those symbols mean?

...She'd have to think about it elsewhere. Time to get going.]

Right.

[Ryoji takes Yukiko’s hand, partly to lead her through the dark, and partly as a thank you for her work. He gives her hand a squeeze to reassure her.]

[Yukiko smiles, but that's when it happens: the tension snaps and the 'wow, I did that' relief sets in, and she laughs. It's definitely more shrill than usual, the emotion clear in the tone, but it's also definitely a laugh.

And another one, a moment later.]

I'm sorry -

[...and that's definitely a snort. Not as planned.]

[Nope nope nope nope, before he can even think about doing anything else, Naoya is already by her side stumbling in the darkness and has his hand over her mouth, least they get found out.]

[Hearing that sound, Minato snaps in the direction he heard it from and quickly moves to try and cover her mouth. In the dark, he can feel his hand on top of another person's hand, most likely someone else's attempt to cover Yukiko's mouth.]

[...Yeah, that's a snort. Veronica didn't need heightened hearing to pick that up.

She sat there in the dark silence, listening for any possible movements from far away. She could easily pick out the others in the group trying to cover Yukiko's mouth.]

We should go now, before we get caught. [She whispered, loud enough for the rest to hear.]

Yeah, let’s get out of here.

[He can already tell Yukiko’s been muffled, so he simply whispers his thanks to whoever covered her mouth and then starts tugging her in the direction out of there as quick as he can manage.]

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slightlyoblivious - 2014-05-13 02:43 (UTC) - Expand