Shadow Box - Part 2
|
A RolePlay Log by | |
|
Date |
2011 May 17 |
|
IC Date |
2528 October 24 |
|
Setting |
Shadow |
|
Appearing |
Suzi, English, Calira, Stilcho, Rhonwen |
Continued from Shadow Box part 1 - Having reached Shadow and safely landed, the team cautiously sojourns north to the abandoned Defiance Station.
Shadow -- Spaceport
==============================================================================
The 'spaceport' here on shadow is nothing more than a flat area of land where the earth has been beaten down and hardened by the ships that land here. Anything that grows has long since withered and died. All is rather ashen gray, and it's very, very cold.
The sky above is darkened, even at high noon, for Shadow suffers from Nuclear Winter. The bombs that the Alliance dropped on the planet that burst at ground level threw a huge amount of dust into the atmosphere, as much as a million tons from the large scale bombs, and that dust darkened the skies. The temperature dropped significantly on the planet, and the ice caps grew. The levels of radiation in some parts of Shadow are so high as to be lethal to all life. It would be wise for anyone on planet to wear a radiation badge.
There are no buildings at all in this area but for one lonely shack that looks as if a good wind might send it sprawling. A dirt road leads off to the north.
==============================================================================
Cold.
All pervasive, penetrating, gnawing, bone aching cold that hammers straight through the bone and beyond in a matter of moments. The specially designed winter-weather/radiation-protection gear that they are all wearing is sufficient to ward off the worst of the cold and offer a measure of modest protection from the elements. In fact, the gear on the manifest is reserved for missions to Shadow, exclusively, and the fact that specific gear has been manufactured and made available for such things is worth pondering. If it weren't for the cold, the gusts of wind carrying fine sand, snow and ash might only be annoying. However, the cold combined with the rest of the elements and the potential for Radiation exposure turns the first step onto Shadow to be a voluntary leap into both the known and unknown of potentials.
Calira spends the time between gearing up and stepping outside going through the basics of mission protocol. Work in pairs. Always within line of sight. Always within iCom and suit-freq communication. Proper suit observation - which is to say do NOT do anything to puncture the suit and should such a thing occur she points out where the sealant patches are located in a designated pouch on each suit. Weapons are reviewed, gear is shouldered and she is the first one out the hatch onto the planet, ensuring that everyone is safely disembarked and paired up before she starts to lead the way away from the ship and north toward the remains of the station. <English>
Suzi is nervous. She doesn't hide it very well. She got her suit on without incident, but her hands were visibly shaking when she accepted the loaner sidearm from Calira and it took a couple of tries for her to get it properly attached to a belt and secured around her hips on the outside of the suit. With that done, she sifted through the gear in the hard case she brought with her to pick out what she thinks she might need. Lockpicks (electronic and conventional), her laptop, a tech scanner, a small portable metal detector, and a few other miscellaneous devices that no one but her are likely to even know what they are. By the time she's finished, she's got the belt to which the gun is strapped weighed down with various pouches containing her gadgets and everything else in a backpack that she carefully slips her suit-clad arms through. Once she's finished, her com checked, her partner assigned and her breakfast (such that it was) still in her stomach, she descends the ramp behind Calira to begin the trek north. Looking around warily and consulting the radiation badge strapped to her wrist frequently. Yea though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death... <English>
Grungo gears up in a heavy duty protective suit with near amazing speed. It's almost as if he had experience with radioactive enviroments. He unlimbers a titanic custom multi-barreled pistola and moves to face the environment on Shadow with fearless aplomb. This definately isn't part of his cover of being a lowly worker. The former border Marshal might have actually been on Shadow before ... or maybe just is very confident his suit will protect him. He doesn't bother with moving like a humble worker but instead does a tactical 'groucho-walk' out into the open. <English>
English calls shotgun, literally. That's the weapon of choice he has taken while using his standard sidearm as backup. Now he's oft to try and rationalize the near future into scenarios where he shan't have an opportunity to use it; that would be nice, the preferred, and knowing the mission parameters and briefing itself it's also the most least likely thing to happen. So he listens to his breathing against his mask whilst stepping onto the cold, cruel world and there is a moment where he pauses in step long enough to half-turn and catch sight of the Firefly's cargo bay just prior to it lifting back up and closing itself off now that it has fully deposited the team. He then turns and begins walking after the others. <English>
Calira test her Agility against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (40).
Suzi tests her Agility against a 60 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-5).
English tests his Agility against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (10).
Grungo tests his Agility against a 60 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-2).
Rhonwen tests her Agility against a 60 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-8).
Rhonwen tests her Agility against a 68 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-1).
Once the entire team has safely disembarked, or perhaps 'taken the field' would be a more accurate term, the concept of 'Nuclear winter' and what it means for weather is more Real than simply abstract term or a pair of words that just seem like a really bad idea. The snow drifts about two feet deep along the path that Calira is taking, and she forges a path with each step which makes it just slightly easier for each next person in line as long as they hold to the general course that she's setting. Along the remnants of buildings, the stand along structures, buried half shapes that might have been ships or vehicles, most of which are completely obscured by the snow. The sheer weight of the snow has caused many of the roofs to cave in under the literal tonnage of weight. From the lack of anything resembling tire tracks or foot prints or anything to mar the snow.. "It looks like no one has been here for days," comes Calira's voice over the suit to suit frequency. "Even with the way the wind is drifting the snow there would be some sort of disturbance of the drifts, some sort of evidence, if anyone had been here in the last few days. Watch your step," she advises, "and stay together." <English>
Grungo starts to slog through the 'holocaust snow' which is actually frozen water and ash. He hits the same spot Suzi did and goes to help her and ends up 'dumping like a truck' instead. He doesn't flounder long but is up and moves to help Suzi up carefully. He comments, "We need to be more careful. Accidents in this enviroment can go higgedly-fucked real fast." <English>
English trudges along. Truth be told, he has this notion of marching being fairly simple after walking down the pathway that three others have already stamped through. There are still moments where he has to pause and readjust his footing, recalculate his sense of balance, and above all else keep his footing. "You don't look all that okay," remarks English in reply. At least the man is not amused while bringing up the rear. There's a time and a place for laughing at people falling; this is neither. He settles in on the far side of the pair in order to further assist in hoisting both woman and equipment back onto the former's feet. "We're not too far off now, just a bit more." <English>
Rhonwen's eyes are wide, child shown some horror and can not take their eyes of it long enough to watch where they are walking. In other words gawking, walking and chewing gum is a feat she is not capable of. As her eyes are drawn to the abandoned ships her foot finds a patch of ice. Grace should have been her middle or first name and Murphy should have been tucked into her name as well. As she slides, flails and lands in deep drift. The mixture of ash and water clings to her suit like thick dust. She wiggles like a shrimp trying to get out. But the backpack and the PDA she is using to record this little trip of theirs keeps her stuck like a turtle on its back. A few more failed attempts at getting up and she calls on her icom. "A little help, a snow drift is trying to eat me." <English>
Calira turns - carefully - when she hears the muffled sound of first Suzi, then Stilcho and lastly Rhonwen falling in the snow. She finds herself glad to see even one other person still upright in the deep snow and as English helps Suzi to her feet and Stilcho pops back up out of the snow like a daisy, Calira trudges back and reaches for both of Rhonwen's hands, sets her feet braced apart and prepares to help tug Rhonwen onto her feet, "Ready?" she asks and - once Rhonwen acknowledges and assents - helps Rhonwen regain her feet. "Suzi, that's not happy happy sounding in your tone of voice. Did you break something?" she asks, "Grungo, take point for the moment until we're sorted out. English is right, we're not all that far away at this point." <English>
Calira test her Strength against a 50 difficulty. The result is successful (3).
With some help from one or both of the gents, Suzi reattains a vertical posture, cradling her left hand against her chest. Really, she's lucky the bulky suit's gloves fit over the cast on her thumb to start with. "No. Yes. Maybe." Suzi replies of Calira's inquiry, through gritted teeth, the soul of ambiguity. "Give me a minute." she says, but all she really does is stand there, braced against the wind, waiting to see if the pain subsides. It does, and she gives a little nod as she flexes her fingers. "I'm alright, just landed on my bad hand. When we get back Kirsten can look at it but I'm fine for now." she assures the Director, taking a deep breath and meeting English's eyes briefly, shooting him a grateful smile. <English>
Stilcho starts to trudge back through the dingy snow. He reaches Rhonwen and tries to help her up. He says, "We really need to move with more caution. Radiation sickness is very very unpleasent and these suits aren't exactly armored." He adjusts his statement is the next breath, "They *are* amazingly resilient ... but the point I'm making is if something goes wrong ... we're not in our natural element anymore." <English>
English leans somewhat back in order to look to Rhonwen's position but Calira is already doubling back in order to help the other woman up, and Grungo-Stilcho gets to take point, or further help, which leaves the detective standing next to Suzi in giving her a minute. The man tries to smile to Suzi but it happens to be rather difficult with their gear so he opts to nodding as reassuringly as possible upon their gaze meeting and he then holds up a thumb. "You fall again and I'm carrying you the rest of the way." There's a pause before he leans back again and looks to the others before focusing forward to the vague, shadowy images of buildings in the distance: "Well, yeah, everyone ready?" <English>
"Thank you , and ready." Rhonwen says as she grabs hold of Calira and Stilcho. Once she is back up on her feet she flashes them both a dimpled grin though it is hidden by her helmet. "Thank you." She then turns her attention on to Suzi. "Are you sure you okay Suzi?" She asks the other woman. She then looks at the others as she is now determined to move more carefully. "I know keep an eye on the wrist and do not puncture the suit. I am ready. " <English>
Defiance Station - Shadow
==============================================================================
There are three buildings here, one an enormous steel and cement structure which rises out of the ground on a grand scale as compared to the other two it's rectangular in shape and would appear to be a warehouse of some tupe. The other two structures are low rising cement block hovels of some kind, windows are cracked and so filthy that it's impossible to see inside.
There is nothing to be seen on the landscape here but rocks and low rising hills for as far as the eye can see. Nothing grows here, and anything that once did is now quite dead.
Everything is dirty, covered in the grime from the dirty rain that falls from time to time.
Someone has hand painted a crooked wooden sign that stands in front of the middle building with bright red paint and it reads:
Defiance Station
==============================================================================
Despite every reason not to, Calira cannot help but smile a bit at Suzi's reply, "Multiple choice answers are not allowed," is said in a tone of voice that conveys a fine thread of genuine amusement. With everyone back on their feet she reorients herself forward with another slow turn about and trudges back to take point once again, speaking as she does so. "Stilcho is entirely accurate. We need to keep moving. These suits are resilient but they're not lined with lead." She pats English on the shoulder on her way by, a tacit gesture of approval/appreciation for his words to Suzi. The last of the trudge through the snow is made in silence, save for the sound of their own breath inside their helmets, the sound of the wind whistling between the buildings and a faint sound of something hinged creaking somewhere near enough that the sound carries and grates on the nerves. Before the gates of the station Calira holds up one hand to signal for a halt. "English, you're rear guard for the moment - keep an eye on our back trail. Suzi and Rhonwen, keep an eye on the surround, sign out if you see /anything/ moving in all this muck. Stilcho, with me. Hold this point and wait until I signal before advancing." She gives the assignments one at a time, making sure to again turn just enough to be able to face her team as she speaks then turns back, flexes her left hand briefly to ease the stiffness of old bones in the cold then slowly crunches her way forward through the snow. <English>
Suzi tests her Listen against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (30).
Calira tests her Listen against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (59).
English tests his Listen against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (33).
Rhonwen tests her Listen against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (9).
Stilcho tests his Listen against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (1).
Suzi pauses to eye English for a moment, but doesn't respond verbally to his statement. Instead, she turns her focus toward watching more carefully where she's going. As the lumps of snowy shapes ahead begin to form themselves into something resembling an outpost, curiosity finally starts to overcome nerves and she studies the emerging shapes while she trudges carefully ahead in Calira's wake. When they draw to a halt, she checks her radiation badge again and nods a bit, seeing that it's still a good color. Calira's instructions are met with a nod and a brief, "Got it." given over the comm. She glances over at Rhonwen briefly before shifting to scan the area and wait for Calira's signal to proceed forward again. <English>
Stilcho pauses and hits his comm, "Evidence spotted. Tampered with. Recent looking." He checks his badge too then sweeps the area with his weapon. He has a tense bearing about him. He surveys the shadows carefully and pause on each corner and lump and opening in the buildings. <English>
English doesn't have to make good on the idea of carrying someone. His muscles thank the lack of extra work while simultaneously lamenting the lack of challenge in doing it, so he ends up quietly braving the environs up until they finally reach the beginnings of the station itself. He can have a better look at it now and from one point of interest to the next does his gaze wander. With him being assigned to the rear he summons the shotgun shouldered and hassles over it only briefly. A shutter overhead on one of the buildings clatters noisily which is where he looks to, focusing on given it breaking his silence louder than his masked breathing. "Looks like tracks and considering the snow pretty recent, can't see which direction they lead from." <English>
Paper, Rhonwen catches that on the device she has that she is using for recording. She frowns as she furrows her brow. "Heading, towards the gate I hear papers sliding across the snow." She starts to move in that direction. Her booted feet make a crunching sound in dry cold snow. Bending down she picks up one of the papers. "I am not able to read anything, the papers are too damaged." Despite this she still gathers them up for evidence. As her hands are gloved she will not have to worry about finger prints. <English>
Calira's forward sojourn into the courtyard is done at a cautious pace, a quick scan of the immediate surround to fix the lay out in her mind, a second scan to pick up the smaller details and she signals for the rest of the team to move forward as well. She's perhaps two yards, six feet or so, ahead of the rest as they begin to move forward and she maintains that distance as she continues to pan slowly around to survey each roof top, each building, every viable surface from which a threat could abruptly arise. Again, the snow in the courtyard looks undisturbed by the passage of boots or anything else for at least a couple days. "What kind of evidence?" is asked as she's making another visual sweep. "Tracks? At least we know we're in the right place then," she remarks, sounding almost grimly relieved before making a non-committal sort of sound at Rhonwen's words followed by, "Well, let's hope that if there's paper out here then there's more inside that didn't get trashed by exposure to the elements." <English>
Though she scans the area diligently, Suzi doesn't really find anything worth reporting. As the others mention things she looks to see if she can see what they see... and for the most part does. Continuing forward when Calira signals, she looks around the courtyard warily. "This place gives me the creeps." she remarks. Not very helpful, but at least informative. Her gloved right hand hovers in the vicinity of her pistol. She's tempted to draw it, and after a bit gives into that temptation, fumbling it from the holster with bulkily shod fingers. The trigger guard is barely big enough to slip a sausage-like finger through, but she keeps her finger clear of it for now, not wanting any accidents should she be startled by a piece of blowing paper or something. <English>
Stilcho comms a declaration, "Supplies. Looks looted. Under flapping tarp. Tarp looks new. No enviromental degradation." He continues to sweep the area, "Keep alert folks. If there are tracks and looted supplies we have two kinds of *unfriendlies* here. This is just a guess but well probably be in a shooting situation. Get you trigger fingers ON your triggers. This has been your local paranoid broadcast channel." <English>
Rhonwen tests her Spot against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (6).
English holds his breath a moment longer than necessary and his chest strains which leads into a breathy sigh as he chambers a round into the shotgun's barrel, listening to the dull click and metal pull of the forestock, safety off and gloved finger off of the trigger as he continues to bring up the rear. "Think of rainbows and meadows," it's not what he's doing though. He's envisioning each and every horror movie he has seen and then each and every death scene within them. It makes him keep an eye on his surroundings all the more. "I've got a bad feeling about this..." <English>
Feet move through the odd mix of ash as Rhonwen continues to search that area near the gate. Her green eyes scan the area like she is looking over a legal document or contract, for mistakes. She shifts her weight and frowns as she catches sight of more shifting papers. The papers are covered in that odd mix of ash. She gathers them up and adds them to her ever growing collection. She clicks her icom on. "More papers, images, but they are blurred. It looks like a cargo manifest. I am adding them to my collection. You know I play a drinking game with one of my paralegals. We watch bad horror films and when the main characters say that we take a drink. It never goes well for the characters that is." <English>
Cavernous Warehouse - Shadow
==============================================================================
This cavernous warehouse is at once sterile and cold. Easily a thousand meters square, drab grey cement runs into walls of reinforced steel. Evenly spaced every 200 square feet is a squat metal beam supporting the ceiling above. Running the length of the far right wall are crates lined up on pallets stacked fifteen feet high. The crates, themselves, are uniform in color and size, any markings identifying the contents not easily visible from below. Situated haphazardly in chunks throughout the rest of the warehouse are additional boxes and crates of cargo, varying in size, color, and shape.
There is a slight chill in the air that is unrelieved by any heating unit, nor stirred by any flow of air. Harsh flourescent lights flicker overhead, casting bright spots of illumination in some sections of the warehouse, and casting pockets of shadow in others. A few sheets of plastic tarp hang near the back of the warehouse, left over remnants of a recent remodeling that suggests this place was once used for something else.
==============================================================================
Leading the way west into the warehouse - west being a choice as a result of a mental coin toss as a byproduct of her being predominantly left-handed /and/ as a result of having studied the layout of this facility while en route - Calira is the first to step into the cavernous facility and decides immediately that it's large of a space to be able to declare 'safe' and 'secured' with just a few seconds to scan the interior. Now would be a perfect time to swear in any number of languages, but she only mutters in mandarin for a few moments as she paces away from the door to the right this time, sweeping a light back and forth before finding a panel near the door that looks like the light switch. "Warehouse - plenty of crates in here - unable to clear room with initial visual sweep. Proceed forward with caution," which is said and clearly not needed as advice but she's still moving slowly through the area and staying within line of sight of the entrance.
The concrete floor inside the warehouse is relatively well swept, which is another sign that this space hasn't been entirely abandoned for very long. Most of the crates have been hauled off to one side of the facility to clear the floor space and, in that floor space, is a bank of computer panels and desks, tables, a sample of office supplies and other things along with spots of dust-free areas that mark the absence of other items no longer in place. "Looks like something was here, but is gone," is perhaps a needless statement but she makes it all the same. "Suzi, see if you can get any of these computers to work still. Stilcho, check to see if there's a generator we can goose back to life to make the lights work. English, take a walk around, tell me what you see," speaking to his investigative skills. "Rhonwen, get as much of this on visual record as you can, pan over the entire room then get a close up of the types of equipment, see if you can get images of any corresponding computer serial numbers - anything we can trace." <English>
Once bidden enter, Suzi steps cautiously into the warehouse, her dark eyes scanning what she can see of the cavernous room as she advances enough to let Rhonwen and English come in behind her. Calira's instruction is met with a nod, and she starts in the direction of the equipment, fumbling her sidearm back into its holster without shooting herself in the foot. Thankfully. Upon reaching the bank of computers, she sheds her backpack and fumbles with the zipper, getting it open eventuallay and digging inside for the portable power source tucked into the bottom. "I've only got enough juice to power up one of these at a time, so if there *is* a generator around that would be helpful." she reports, as she's hooking the first computer up to the battery, along with one of the monitors. <English>
Suzi tests her Computer_Use against a 40 difficulty. The result is successful (27).
Suzi tests her Security_systems against a 40 difficulty. The result is successful (33).
Stilcho tests his Spot against a 40 difficulty. The result is successful (30).
Stilcho tests his Spot against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (8).
Suzi tests her Spot against a 60 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-2).
English tests his Spot against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (12).
Rhonwen tests her Spot against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (21).
This is going to be tough if only because there could be Reavers somewhere around, or even better a man or woman wanting to plug lead into him, or even better a wild three-headed glowing dog willing to barter with English over the loss of a leg or two. So while the back of his mind frets over wrestling with Cerberuses the forefront contents itself in shouldering his shotgun in order to dislodge a flashlight from a pouch at his side. It's clicked on while he reaches for the holster at his abdomen and withdraws the sidearm there. He begins walking, listening to the dull echo of his boots upon the concrete flooring as he branches off. The safety of the sidearm is switched in the meantime of sweeping his gaze here and there, washed out beam of light leading. Briefly, he swings it back and forth along the flooring and then pauses more heavily after walking to where he had shined it. He crouches down. "Looks like something was moved from here," a beat, he looks along the markings in trying to follow after them visually. "I'd say someone." <English>
Stilcho searches around carefully in the same tactical crouch with his pistol following his center of vision until he finds a radiator. He comms, "Found one. Just start it? I have no idea what it's hooked to. And it looks like it'd attract attention. If we fire this thing up the whole grid may come up. I'd prefer back up ... or better yet to be *someone else's* backup if we are going to just light this fuse. We might want to do a complete search of the warehouse and turnoff any lightswitches that are on before we do this." <English>
Stilcho tests his Gather_Information against a 60 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-13).
Stilcho tests his Gather_Information against a 73 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-24).
"Will do the recording." She grows quiet for a moment. " Warehouse, seems abandoned. Warrants have already been issued for this assignment which included the search and seizure of all computers databases. WR247898OM is the warrant number. Proceeding!" Rhonwen states as she steps into the building and starts to record what they are seeing. "Date: October 26, 2528, 13:57:58." She makes sure she gets everything with the device. One thing that she also gets is the serial numbers on the computers and all other devices. She does this because it needs to be recorded with the warrant information. "Serial numbers are being scanned and recorded for future use, this is also are covered in the warrant number WR247898OM." She contiues to scan and record what is happening in this building. <English>
English tests his Gather_Information against a 50 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-11).
English tests his Gather_Information against a 61 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-8).
Rhonwen tests her Spot against a 60 difficulty. The result is unsuccessful (-12).
Rhonwen tests her Spot against a 72 difficulty. The result is successful (20).
Suzi tests her Computer_Use against a 50 difficulty. The result is successful (40).
"Paper, found west in the building, near the crates. Gathering as evidence." Rhonwen states as she moves to look at the papers and gather them up. She peers at them through the face shield of her helmet. "Portable thumb drive found, handing it over to our tech. This was found in the shuffle of papers that are in Gaelic. " She says as she continues to record. She then moves over to where Suzi is and she holds the drive out to her. "Hand off is occurring." <English>
Stilcho comms, "Honestly boss. I'm no tech but this look like a closed system. For all I know it could ring to alert alarm on New Tortuga. I'm going to start it unless you tell me not to. From what little I can tell it'll give us light and heat. Those may not be the best things in the world for staying covert but they'll help us gather evidence." <English>
"Something or someone, either way it's worth seeing if the tracks can be traced to a point of origin," Calira replies as she continues to move cautiously around the room. With the assignments neatly sorted she's approaching the stack of crates with marked interest, "What sort of crate are we looking for, Rhonwen? A crate is a crate is a crate unless there's specific markings or logo, I mean," she clarifies. "As long as we can reasonably turn on the generator and see about getting some light on in here, I'm more inclined than not to do so. I do not want to prowl around these crates in the dark," and while she doesn't normally let emotion color her tone of voice - especially while On The Clock - she can't quite conceal the creeped out tone that's just barely discernible. "There's a warrant already issued? Hah, see? I knew it was a good idea to have the legal beagle along," is added in a rather more relieved tone of voice than her previous remarks. At this point she's paced her way forward to a few meters away from the leading edge of the stacks of crates, "My what big crates we have here," is added - perhaps a small attempt at levity. <English>
"Hang on, let me take a look at it." Suzi says, as concerns are raised about the generator. "Let me just get this transfer going." Pulling a thin portable data drive from her backpack, she hooks it up to the computer that's finished booting and awkwardly gets a transfer started. It's really hard to do this with the gloves on. Fortunately it doesn't involve much actual typing. When a thumb drive is mentioned, she turns her head to look in Rhonwen's direction, accepting the object and tucking it into one of the backpack's zippered pockets for now. "Okay, generator... coming!" she turns, takes a step, and pauses. "Er, where are you Stilcho?" She chuckles softly, but with a little direction is able to find the stack of crates that the fellow disappeared behind. As she approaches the generator, she makes a visual inspection of the machine and the cables coming out of it, tracing them to a box on the wall. Stepping over the cables, she approaches the box, opens it, and spends a couple of minutes poking around inside using tools from her belt pouches. It takes her longer than usual, because of the bulky gloves, but eventually she does step back and nod, flipping Stilcho a thumbs-up. "Power should be limited to this building now, fire it up." <English>
English would really enjoy being able to remove all of this heavy gear but as it stands he gets to try and track the tracks beneath him with a close eye, shining his beam of light along the pathway up until seemingly coming to a dead-end. He narrows his gaze upon it, looks all the more, but ends up turning around just long enough to verify searching along the other end of the trail. He follows his own previous footsteps, careful not to disturb the other. <English>
English tests his Spot against a 50 difficulty. The result is successful (36).
Stilcho jabs the big red button start button in a dramatic big red button pressing fashion. He grins and swings his weapon around as the power, light, and heat comes up slowly. He comms, "We're online boss. I suggest we start a sector by sector search of the warehouse. We partner up for quadrants with Rhonwen and Suzi remaining as a search hub." <English>
Rhonwen tests her Gather_Information against a 60 difficulty. The result is successful (17).
With a coughing sound, a grinding sort of rattle, a brief wheeze and another mechanical hiccup the generator first sputters and then rumbles to life with a muted sort of engine sound as it begins to laboriously chug away, consuming fuel as it sets to actual work. All around the warehouse the interior lights begin to flicker on, about half of which make a snapping *fizzt* sort of sound as the ballast in some have frozen in place and snap right back off as a result. The surge protector that the computers are connected to is, thankfully, linked to another power buffer unit so that when the buffer lights up the surge protector is more than capable of handling the sudden flow of power available to the computers and monitors that remain. Within a few minutes the giant space heaters mounted along the floor in a rough circle around the work area being to churn out heat in a weak attempt to help thaw the area; other heaters are placed around the room to lend a hand. But, this being a cavernous warehouse - 'warm' will not be achieved any time soon.
Calira pans a handheld torch slowly around the areas that are left unilluminated with the lights not working properly in every area. "Alright, see if we can get that description of the crate we're looking for. OR even where they'd plunked it down in here," she asks of Suzi and Rhonwen. "English, see if you can track those drag marks to their source," and the admonishment to go as CAREFULLY as possible is there but unsaid. "Stilcho and I are going to do a quick walk through of these crate stacks to make sure there's nothing ticking or in danger of toppling over like badly weighted dominoes." <English>
With her work on the power grid complete, Suzi returns to the computer workstations to check the progress of her data transfer. Once the power seems steady, she turns on the other computers and monitors, getting them ready for transfers as well. It's slow work, due to the encumberance of the suit, but better that than exposure, she figures. "Roger." she says over the comm, acknowledging Calira's instructions, and decides to poke around on one of the computers while she waits on the data transfer to the first to finish. Maybe she can find something useful while she waits? Stranger things have happened. Her eyes stray to the front doors now and then, as though expecting someone to come bursting in and catch them in the act. <English>
The tracks are dizzying, if only because English now has to wade through his own and the others that have moved back and forth. He can centralize the origin now though where the scuffle began and then moves back in the direction of the wall in the distance. "Right hooray me," sarcastically he talks to himself while clicking off the flashlight and eyeing over the entrance. They have light now and he tucks the handheld torch back in its slot at his side. That leaves his offhand to touch carefully over the cool plating while aiming the handgun forward with his right. "There's some sort of entrance here, but I can't tell where." He looks down, where the tracks continue beneath the walling. <English>
With Stilcho walking along one side of the stack of crates and Calira working her way down along the other, Calira is eyeing a crate that's labeled rather simply as 'ammunition' which is adjacent to one labeled 'mechanical parts' alongside one marked 'dry good' and wonders at the sorting order employed by the last group here. "I'm wondering if they just shoved everything out of the way to clear the floor space," she admits quietly, a pensive tone in her voice, as she tilts her head slightly to read the label on the next series of boxes. "What sort of entrance?" she asks of English after his words echo over the suit com's. "Stilcho, keep an eye on the entrance, I'm going to join English near this entrance he's found," she says as she breaks off her study of the labels and makes her way back to the central portion of the room and pauses alongside Suzi, "Everything okay out here?" she asks of Suzi before she'll move forward, wanting to check with each person before doing so, even glancing at Rhonwen as well with the question. <English>
All is quiet on the Suzi front for several minutes, at least over the comm. She's talking to herself, muttering and cursing occasionally as she pecks at the keyboard with fingers easily twice their usual size. It involves a lot of backspacing and correcting. A painstaking meticulous process, is that. As Calira checks in, she nods a bit. "Yeah. I think I found what we're looking for on the manifest... dimensions, weight, there's even a photo." she says, indicating the file she's got pulled up on the screen. "They were pretty damn meticulous about their records, whoever they were." <English>
"The kind of entrance I wouldn't have noticed if someone prior to us weren't so hasty with whatever happened. There's no blood though, no other signs of struggle, but," English breaks off of speaking up at that point while bending down at a low crouch. He readjusts his pack and shouldered shotgun in the process before focusing back on the matters at hand which just so happens to be running his free hand in search of a seam, a break in the wall where a hidden hinge could be. Then he knocks - once - and then once more. He should finish what he was saying, "But the signs that are here don't look old at all." <English>
Calira is torn - which is obvious from both her expression and tone of voice - "Alright. Alright," she says quietly, and taps her gloved fingertips against the edge of one of the tables for a moment. "Okay. Stilcho, you stay here and get a gander at this image then see if you can find the crate that we're looking for. Odds are, the crate isn't here but we're going to look for it anyway." She flexes the fingers of her left hand, once more easing the stiffness caused by the cold and having repeatedly broken the hand in the last 20 or so years. "English and I are going to open that door and see where it leads. I'd like you to come with, there might be more computers and stuff downstairs. Do what you can to hook up these computers to transfer as much data to your portable harddrive. Maybe we can just power them down safely and drag them all back with us," she suggests next, as though the idea of MOVING the remaining computers and taking them back with them to the Zang Fu has just occurred to her. "Do you think they can be safely powered down and moved?" she asks of Suzi before saying to English, "Is there any sort of security plate? Anything around the door that looks like a tamper resistant feature?" <English>
Suzi tests her Computer_Use against a 50 difficulty. The result is successful (21).
English tests his Spot against a 50 difficulty. The result is successful (31).
English tests his Security_systems against a 50 difficulty. The result is successful (9).
"Yeah, we could power them off and bring them with us, there doesn't seem to be any physical security in place to prevent it. Though I couldn't carry them all myself. I'm pretty loaded down as it is. Also, that Captain might be a bit curious what sort of memorial service we went out for that we came back with extra gear." Suzi offers, fetching a few additional cables from her backpack and proceeding to daisy chain the computers together so she can get a simultaneous transfer going. "Honestly, all I really need out of them are the hard drives, but I don't think I can pull them with these gloves on. It requires a little more finesse than I can manage at the moment. The transfer will get the current files, if I had the hard drives I could do analysis on deleted files." She fiddles a bit more before stepping back. "Alright, the transfer's going to take a good twenty minutes to get everything." she says, turning to look toward the hatch English has found, since Calira seems to want her to go next. Gulp. <English>
English tries to rub his face only to belatedly remember that it's currently covered so he opts for doing it to the visor shielding his eyes while wrinkling the bridge of his nose; itchy. "There's not much radiation in these parts, could take the gloves off once it's warmed up," which could admittedly take a while given how everything seems to be frozen relatively over, "But uh." He trails off briefly in standing and lifting a hand up overhead. That's where his focus lies as he brushes away dust and then senses by touch. "Got something." He shifts and places a shoulder against the walling beneath where his hand was and turns to look to Calira. "I can push the door open if you can cover me. Then we can secure the entrance since I'm pretty sure it's frozen up to begin with." <English>
"Now see, this is why you're the technical specialist," Calira admits with a quiet chuckle at Suzi, "I wouldn't have thought to just take out the memory gizzards and bring them back. Good thinking," she adds with a nod then remembers no one can /see/ the nod and gives Suzi a thumbs-up gesture. "And English is right. If we do it fast enough we can pop all of these cases open with the gloves on, you tell us how to get the memory bits out and well just put them in your case and we'll carry them out." By now she's worked her way across the room to where English is examining the wall and carefully eases her favorite gun out of it's webbed holster at her side and has it aimed, carefully, down at the floor as she nods. "I'll cover you. On three?" she suggests, letting English do the count and being prepared to shoot anything that so much as twitches wrongly once the door opens. "Shoot first, interrogate the remains later," she says in that dry-sense-of-humor tone of voice as she waits for English to open the door. <English>
Suzi's expression turns thoughtful for a moment. "I think I can talk you through it, yeah. I'll know more once I get one of the cases open." she says, as she follows Calira over to the hatch, leaving Rhonwen behind to keep an eye on the data transfer and Stilcho to watch the door. While English makes ready to shoulder open the door, she steps aside so that if there IS anyone on the other side they won't see her when the door opens. After all, she's just the brain. Calira's the brawn. Or something. After a pause, she fumbles her sidearm from its holster, checks the safety, and holds it pointed at the ground but ready in case she needs to shoot at something. AT being the key word, there. Chances of hitting... less than great. <English>
"I wish I had a good comeback for that," but alas, English does not and given the circumstances he is more than willing to question irradiated remains after the fact. He grins. He nods though, on three, and before pushing open the door looks to Suzi and her sidearm before remarking. "No shooting me in the back. It's one of my many best features." Then, "Three," and he uses his brute strength to push open the hatch and give the three of them access to the beyond. Since there are guns trained in his general direction he keeps his head low and center of gravity even lower. <English>
The door opens with a squeak of rusted hinges, the heavy weight of the door and the sheer amount of caked ice ON the door itself making the door swing heavily and to wobble slightly as it slams against the interior wall, the sound echoing oddly back up at the three of them as they are poised in the doorway. In response to the echo, the grating sound of the door swinging open, there's a grand amount of nothing leaping up the stairs at them in response. In fact, the only immediate sound of any kind is their breathing, the crackle of the com faintly in their ears and then that faint *fzzzt* sound of lights starting to flicker to life, ballasts reluctantly excited in the glass walled cylinders that form the lights themselves. The light above the stairs is, of course, the last one to flicker to life. "Ahh crap," is Calira's less than eloquent reply as she can see a body sprawled face up at the foot of the stairs and a boot of another just barely glimpsed beyond. "We have dead bodies, ladies and gentlemen. I'll take point," after all - recon leads the way - "and everyone keep their guns aimed down until and or unless you see something aiming at you. Deep breaths," perhaps unnecessary advice, "and one step at a time." She eases forward, one hand bracing on the door itself as she tests the first step and then slowly starts the descent. <English>
Suzi tenses at Calira's 'Ah crap'. She can't see down the stairs from her position, but since there was no gunfire or sound from the other side of the door she pokes her head around the edge of the wall to peer down right about the time that Calira mentions bodies. Her head jerks back and she straightens, her back pressed against the wall and fingers suddenly tight around the grip of her borrowed pistol. "This was SO not in the orientation." she mutters, squeezing her eyes shut and counting silently to ten. Then, when that's not enough, she counts to twenty. Takes a deeeeep breath. Exhales slowly. Gives herself a little pep talk off-comms. Then opens her eyes and moves to follow Calira and English down the stairs. Against her better judgement, one might add. "I'm going to try not to hurl, but if there are any snakes down here... I'm out." <English>
"Who says they're dead?" Of course, Calira just pointedly said they were dead. That doesn't mean English trusts his eyes or her words. He'll keep his other gruff comments to himself for the time being especially with Calira taking point. He swaps weapons once again and favors the combat shotgun as he moves forward to follow down second. There's a moment where he looks over his shoulder to the world beyond and then to Suzi but considering he's not talking for the time being his attention drifts quietly back to the fore. <English>
====================
Continued in Shadow Box part 3
