Plant-Nanite Interaction - Failure - RPLOG
From Flexible Survival
Participants
Date
11/9/2016
Log
Waiting patiently at the newsstand for agents to respond to the call that has been put out, a dark-furred feline woman - housecat-based - stands at attention. Dressed in an immaculate business outfit that bears not a single hint of stray fur or damage, she quietly sharpens her claws with a nail file, biding her time. There is a subtle hint of impatience to her mannerisms, from briskness of motion to a constant twitching of her tailtip, as if this were well outside her standard duties and she simply wanted to get it over with.
Anderson shuffles into the newsroom. His orders from command were to assist Zephyr in their operation to reclaim the plant lab and report whatever was found. Despite his self-doubts, the demolitions tech was sent as the only represenitive for the group. /r The Latex Snow Leopard swallows his doubts and approaches the cat woman. He straightens up and says, "Agent Anderson. RSX. Uh... i-is this briefing locale?"
A pint-sized pink pegasus zips into the room, propelled by her equally tiny wings. She hovers in place a bit before spotting the two cats by the newstand, darting her way over and coming to an abrupt halt in front of them. "Hiya! Is this where the party's starting?" she chirps with a bright smile.
Fenris trots happily over to the newsstand, stuffing a barista's uniform into his bag in favor of the upper half of a police uniform he currently wears. A badge marked "SGT. CHUBBS" is pinned proudly on his chest. "This is where we're meeting for the plant stuff, yeah?" he asks, a cheery smile on his face and a sword and spear of all things crossed over his back.
Astara's prescence is once again made audially obvious, her hooves clopping on the floor as she slowly walks, and her natural-made clothing of vines, leaves, and flower petals rustling softly with her movement. She looks around, seeing others starting to arrive right when she does, and follows them to the denoted place of meeting. She smiles, and wraps an arm around Fenris and pats him on the back in a friendly manner: "Ah, hello again, Fenris! This should be the place."
Arris walks into the newsstand, a polished bolt-action rifle slung over hir right shoulder. A book is tucked under hir left arm, and a plastic bottle of ginger ale is held in hir right arm. Sie glances around the room before spotting the group of people crowding around, then walking over to them. Tapping the latex snow leopard on the shoulder lightly, sie gives him a friendly smile before asking, "Hey, is this where the mission to that laboratory place starts?"
Sroath Walks into the room and puts his back to a wall. With a nod to those already standing around he takes a well practised stance, the one ingrained from his time as a bodyguard. "Sroath, reporting."
Zophah walks in behind Arris, sporting her usual bikini and filled lab coat. Unlike the last mission, this time a compund cam bow is slung over one shoulder. Answering Arris's question for her, Zophah says: "This is the place the notice said." Turning back to Aaron Zophah adds: "Promethian scientist ready for duty. I brought notebooks for research."
Gazing out at the gathered agents, the woman draws in a deep breath. "Very good." she states in a firm, crisp tone that bears no interruption. "Everyone is here for the advertised mission, I trust? Good." She doesn't even wait for a reply before continuing. Eyeing Anderson when he self-identifies as an RSX employee, she utters a faint sigh - hopefully, the others will be able to keep an eye on him. "Let's make this quick. Hydroponics lab, near the Rolling Hills. Your job is to infiltrate the place, try to recover whatever research and equipment you can, and report on the state of the place. Engage ferals as needed. Any questions?" Based on her expression, she's /really/ hoping no one has any questions.
Anderson turns to see the precession of people entering. He recognized a few of them, to his relief. As much as he wanted to greet them, he needed to do his job. The leopard shakes his head in silent response to the official giving the breifing. "We'll... We'll bring back wh-what looks useable, m-madam..." he mumbles.
Firecracker lands on the tanuki's head near her before raising one forehoof with enthusiasm and saying, "Oh me! Me! What's everyone's names? Cause I like to know names and my name is Firecracker, I think, and if we're gunna be a party we should all know each other's names!"
Fenris bounces on his toes, waving his hand in the air. "Oh! Oh! Question!" he calls out, "Can we get a ride from Mike? That in the budget? Or do we have to walk?" Rolling hills is an awful long way to jog AND do the Z's dirty work. "And will there be snacks after?" He seems happy enough to let the tiny pony rest on his head. "Hello, Firecracker," he says, "My badge says Sergeant Chubbs."
Astara nods and remarks "Yup!" in response to the feline's briefing, and similarly shakes her head when she asks for questions. "I can't think of any, to be honest. Have anything you can say about the place ahead of time that might be useful, or are we going in blind?" She can't help but to roll her eyes at Fenris and his continued use of false nametags. "I'm Astara. And THAT..." she points to the jubilant 'nuki, "...is Fenris. So I guess his full name is Sergant Fenris Chubbs?" Astara gives him a shit-eating grin and another playful slap across the back.
Arris takes a sip of ginger ale, nodding back at Zophah. "Yeah, was just checking to make sure." Sie fidgets with the cap of the bottle a little as the Zephyr official briefs the group on the mission information, but otherwise pays close attention. When she finishes, sie looks like sie is about to ask a question, but decides otherwise. Arris then looks around with a bit of worry at the other people asking questions about the mission, glancing back at the feline woman periodically to gauge her mood.
Sroath shakes his head and pointedly looks toward the door, expressing wordlessly his desire to begin the job.
Zophah checks her gear again, and finding everything as needed she just gives a 'thumbs up' to the Zephyr offical, signaling her readiness. She then looks over the other people gathered here, answering "I'm Zophah." to Firecracker while pointing to the nametag on her lab coat.
The cat-woman sighs wearily when people start speaking up, and rubs her temples. "What? No questions? I'm delighted to hear it." she states, making her way back toward the lobby. After a moment's thought, she pauses, her back still to the group as she explains, "Mike is preoccupied, agents are expected to supply their own provisions, and you can introduce each other on the way there." Another long moment passes, and she adds, "If any of you happen upon any plants called 'Nepeta cataria', I'll pay handsomely for them if you can bring them back to me unharmed." With that, she's out of sight, unless someone stops her.
Anderson blurts, "Wait!" He darts forward and tries getting the woman's attention again, tapping her shoulder. "Wh-what's the plant look like, and why do you want it?" he asks with a small feeling of dread sprouting.
Firecracker sits back on her haunches, tapping Fenris's head with on hindhoof and pointing forward with a forehoof. "Onward, Chubbsy!" she shouts with an overabundance of energy.
"That's the Z for you," Fenris says with a content little smile, "Better get moving! Hold on up there!" The tubby tanuki sets off at a brisk jog, despite his big belly, stopping to jog in place at the automatic doors out of the lobby. "And Catnip, got it!" he calls back as he vanishes out the door, passenger and all.
Astara sighs as the Zephyr agent proves to be unhelpful and ungrateful, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Well, does anyone want a ride? I could carry at least a few people on my back."
Arris watches the official leave the newsstand, before looking around at hir group. "Nepeta cataria, huh? Isn't... isn't that... hm. I wonder how much she wants to pay for that..." Sie thinks for a short moment before shaking hir head. "Ah, either way, I think it's best we start heading out before it gets dark. Right, guys?" Sie starts following after Fenris, though doesn't attempt to match his pace and settles for a slightly faster walk.
The shadows seem to stir for a second, go still, then, a panda garbed in a modified version of her armor which is dyed a slim, matte black. Phosphorus has her full weaponry loadout, with a small, bullpup carbine pointed down to her side. "Was I late to the party? Miss anything important?"
Sroath waits for the rest to file out before stepping from the wall and following after them.
Zophah follows. She has nothing to add. Just to be sure of the task ahead, she 'tags' Arris, Firecracker, and the official with her Biomonitoring Sight nanomagic, keeping tabs on their status for the task ahead. Looking at the Red Panda that joined them, Zophah says "I can fill you in on the way there."
As the party heads east toward the Rolling Hills by general consensus, the standards sights can be seen. Eastern Fairhaven, checked. Crumbled highway, check. Cat Town, check. It's not until then that Fenris receives information on his comm unit. And thank goodness! The hydroponics plant is a bit north of the Hills, neatly bisecting the angle created when the road curves northeast. It'll require a bit of cutting and hacking thanks to the area being a bit overgrown, but the team should be able to reach the edifice in short order if they stay focused.
Anderson faces the team. He hasn't lead a squad of people before for a mission, but the cat man speaks up. "A-Alright. The... The lab is up ahead p-past the plants. I... I have a flamethrower, b-but... we sh-shouldn't burn the c-countryside. Any al-alternatives?"
As the team cuts through the overgrowth, Firecracker, still sitting on Fenris's head, points at each member of the group and calls out their names as she goes. "Okay so there's Andy, me, Chubbsy, Starry, Dunno 1, Dunno 2, Dunno 3, and Zoph! We're gunna have a lotta fun!" She points to the gator, red panda, and minkitsune as she lists off the "dunnos." She then responds to Anderson's question by saying, "Oh I know! We can just do this!" before launching off the tanuki's head into the air to fly above the plants below.
Fenris checks his comm, closing one eye as he continues to jog. Nanites made life weird. Almost as weird as the NICE unit imbedded at the base of his skull. "Come on, Anderson!" he calls not slowing for the nervouse feline, "Adventure!" The tanuki draws his sword from its scabbard as his rider takes to the air and starts to clear the path.
"I have a flamethrower, too, but I think it'd be best to not start a fire we can't control." Astara tells the timid latex leopard, a bit visibly startled by the fact that pint-sized pony charges headfirst into the imposing brush. She shifts her hands, going from the smooth, almost featureless fingers she had before, to becoming demonic and downright draconic, with long curling claws at the end of each finger, and everything below her elbow covered in dark-purple scales. "Well, guess we'll do this the old-fashioned way!" She then starts walking through the brush, cutting it down with her new hands and trampling the rest down with her bulk.
Along the way, Arris introduces hirself to the rest of the group, as well as providing some light commentary on some of the landmarks they pass by. looks around at the lush forest, sighing. "Dammit. I can't say that I enjoy being in places with short sightlines. I should have learned to climb a tree or something." Sie walks up to one of the trees, looking up at its leaves and feeling its bark before continuing on through the bush, holding out hir rifle at the ready. "Well, Andy, I don't think that burning is a good idea, if it works. There's probably some kind of nanite stuff that would prevent that from happening."
"Sounds like we'll have to cut through it, then. I'm Operative Phosphorus, by the way. Ignition is something we could pull off, though, if we planned it correctly. We can wet the surrounding foliage given effort or the right nanomagic, and then simply ignite our desired zone." The panda shrugs, then pulls two gleaming kukuris out of waist scabbards. "Or I could toss a white phosphorus grenade in there. That'd work too."
Sroath blinks at the foolish ideas being tossed out and snorts as he pulls his knife and begins to work on the brush. cutting a plant here, ripping a plant there via brute force. "Sort of silly, thinking of burning things? what if the plants we're looking for happen to be amongst this mess?"
Zophah stays near the back of the group, keeping her bow in hand while out here in the wilderness. She has nothing to add after explaining the trip to Phosphorus, which is making her a bit bored with the trip. But it'll be worth it once everyone gets to the lab.
The slashing and carving proves effective enough in clearing a path toward the lab itself, though it might be worth noting that the foliage gets thicker and harder to cut through the closer the team gets to the lab. Oh, also, the screaming. The screaming merits a mention too. Every time a vine is snapped, a limb is severed, or damage is otherwise done to the foliage surrounding the lab, there's a shrill, inhuman shriek that sounds out from the direction of the lab itself. Aside from that, easy enough! More importantly (by some viewpoints), the team reaches the lab...and the doors are sealed tightly shut. Partially responsible is the locking mechanism, with a key card system (which appears to be offline) off to one side. Partially responsible is the tangle of vines clustered around the door, serving to hold it closed to the extent that - even if the key card system could be reactivated and utilized somehow - the vines would also have to be dealt with before any possible entry. Thanks to their spot high in the air, Firecracker has long since lost sight of her team, who have vanished under a mass of green too thick to see through.
Anderson takes a head count of the group, but notices one head missing. "Where's the little horse?" he asks the group aloud. "We need to find them before going."
