Latest revision as of 02:41, 8 March 2014

Participants

• Dio
• Grace
• Lizzie
• Loveblade
• Meek
• Skade

Date

7/3/2014

Log

The sun is glaring down from above as the team nears the supposedly abandoned research lab. It's unusually warm for this time of year but then again the weather up in the mountains has always been fickle. The mountains also get the blame for the increasing amount of static noise coming across the com channels. As it is, you are all standing infront of a large metal door off to the side that, according to your intel, leads down into the lab.

Being a Zephyr employee and a 'citizen' of Fairhaven, Dio hasn't explored much of Woodfield besides the occasional operation here or there when needed. Ready to break away from his month or so of relaxing and lazing about like a true lion, the suit-wearing feline arrives at the designated research area. His heavy armor, with perhaps more underneath, occasionally clanks, while a shotgun rests securely in his right hand. Cursiously enough, his left holds a tasty looking snack, each bite giving his body a surge of strength to help resist damage! But before heading inside, he looks towards the other group members and sizes them up. "Is everyone ready," he asks before taking another bite and stashing the snack away.

Loveblade moves up to the buildings side, her eyes looking up to spot any holes or ports that might have been gnawed upon, checking the outer structure for signs of forced entry as she readies herself to move forward. She brought some extra gear, not sure if the mission would turn into a search and rescure, or what would become of her at the end of the day, but, that was why she had been offered the job. Her muscles flexed as she wondered how to approach, scanning, the Laser Rifle and Flamethrower at her side complimented her scales, while waist holds a fiber mesh belt and two Kevlar battle pouches in leather sleeves, a Glock pistol, dagger and Swiss army knife tied in with empty fittings for more weapons. Various Nano-Active tools dot the back of the belt in holsters and pouches. A micro computer is there, SONY on the front and spray-painted black to match her scales, the control screen and pad with attached ear-piece fitted to the underside of her left bracer. Her back has a pack, large to fit her body and easily carried with her heroic strength, ammo clips along the side and for spear and sword-work, two curved scimitars sit in easy reach with space for two more fittings.

Lizzie crouched down on a rock, combat energy claw, pistol, and backpack full of survival gear there. Her combat armor creaked a little bit as she knelt there, a small comm unit crackled with static before being finally flipped off, a test to ensure the problem traffic was still going around. "Grace, get your ass up here. It's time to get to fuckin' work." The mercenary shouted out behind her, switching her eyes over toward the door and moving slowly toward it to examine it a little more closely. "Don't think you should just jump the fuck inside that bitch though. That asshole might have old defenses still active. I'm gonna take a close god damn look but if any of you assholes have any security knowledge you might want to take a good fuckin' peek before we pop this bitch open like the legs of a huskey in the Zephyr lobby."

Grace isn't far behind Lizzie, hidden behind the rock face the human is perched on. She tugs at the collar of the body armor Lizzie had lent her. It's a little bit on the small side, but protection is protection. She also has a 9mm pistol from the same source, but doubts she'll use it. "I'm coming, hang on," she says as she climbs up and crouches down beside Lizzie.

Meek pokes about a few paces behind the group, hitting the side of her radio trying to coax it into working. It sputters and statics back, despite showing the coordinates perfectly. Meek is a bright-eyed phoenix, curious and pleasant but a bit out of her depth working in the field. She had a short career as a Zephyr field agent but hasn't been out on an assignment in some time. Her inexperience is apparent in the apprehensive gaze she's giving to all the heavy firepower of the other members as compared to the medical kit slung around her shoulder and a backpack with some extra food, a clipped survival knife, and a few other odds and ends. "R-Ready!" she answers Dio, lying.

The metal door gleams dully in the sunlight. It appears to be quite unlocked and ordinary. After Lizzie makes sure it's actually completely mundane, it swings open on well-oiled hinges and a gust of hot air blows out from it. Flourecent light greets you as well as a wide metal staircase leading down into the structure below.

Dio does another look over the group and raises an eyebrow. This was certainly going to be an interesting mission one way or another. The lion rolls his shoulders and fumbles around in his pocket until he finds his objective. With a press, a small buffering layer of nanites surrounds him, further assisting in mitigating damage. As a gust of warm wind hits his face, he quickly brings back a hand to brush down his mane and soon straightens up his suit. "The door seems safe enough," he comments, moving a bit closer and peeking inside, "But naturally we can't be sure how safe the inside is. I'll be willing to take point if desired. Let us press onwards, slowly, and keep your eyes open."

Slowly but surely, Dio walks through the doorway, taking careful steps while sniffing about and keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any disturbances.

Lizzie clicks her tongue a bit after the examination. "Well, all the shit must be way the fuck inside. Looks like the fuckin' lights work too. I was kinda fuckin' hopin' it was gonna just be some small bitches messin' with getting only the comm shootin' some fuckin' static but if they have a hold shittastic lab workin' at things who the fuck knows what could be down here." Nanties loose in any research facility would always be a problem of course but it was a matter of degree. At least her complete immunity to such things might shield her but if other jobs were any indication almost everyone had some form of way around things like that.

"Go ahead and take fuckin' point. I'll cover your furry ass and we can move this on. Couldn't get one good damn briefin' and not even a fuckin' chance to take a shower before they shuffle my ass off on a mission." She swears to herself as she moves behind Dio, looking around past him and waiting for him to walk along inside. "Just stay with me Grace and we'll get fuckin' paid for this bullshit and maybe they got some old CDs or some other cool shit in there as a bonus."

Loveblade grins and blinks her eyes to adjust to the low-light levels, looking over the group that came together and cocking her head to the side "Look, I wasn't given much in the way of detail, so I don't know what we're going to find in here. I did bring some extra equipment that should go to those who might benefit. If anyone has to breathe at all times, tell me now and I'll hand over the miniature scuba-gear and suit I brought. Gas or water for that, and I have some extra supplies if someone..." she stops, embarassed and not sure how to finish that phrase, but opening up her pack and pulling out a few things, wating outside at the back for the moment "Anyone?"

Grace is a bit lost among the people who evidently actually know what's going on. She falls in line behind Lizzie, and unclasps the strap on her holster. "So uh, I know you said we were gonna go investigate something to do with radios and stuff," she says to Lizzie, "But what exactly is gonna happen? Am I gonna have to shoot stuff?" That prospect worries her. She's never actually done any shooting. "I mean, I can punch and claw stuff pretty good, but I don't know if I could shoot anything."

When she hears what the bird girl is talking about, Grace turns around. "I need to breathe," she says. "My lungs are functional and everything?"

Meek cautiously makes her way in, looking about with her keen avian eyes before commiting entirely. She tilts her head curiously towards Lizzie, blinking a few times before slinking behind everyone. The firebird peeks in Loveblade's pack, "I have to breathe" Meek says to Loveblade, peeking in her pack and taking note of what may be of use later. Placing an inhumanly warm hand on Grace's shoulder Meek, attempts a comforting smile. "I've never shot anything myself, let's hope it doesn't come to that?".

Dio's sharp feline senses doesn't seem to pick up anything out of the ordinary. It's quiet down below, and warm it would seem, but other then that, nothing seems to be moving down there or setting off any alarm bells ringing. Deciding it's safe enough, the team moves in to explore the lab below. Behind the entrance door a wide staircase leads down into the bowels of the research lab. It's even warmer down here, almost opressively so.

Some ten meters straight ahead is a massive blast door, sealed shut. A small access terminal is affixed to the side of it. To the west is some sort of meeting room, it would seem. Just a glance inside through the open door shows that it contains precious little except a large oval wooden table and some chairs gathered around it. A vanilla envilope seems to have been left behind on the tabletop. To the east is another door.

As soon as you reach the bottom of the stairs, your external coms finally flicker out completely, returning nothing but white noise. You're on your own down here, it would seem.

"I ain't wearin' a fuckin' dive tank into a facility. Just toss me a resperator if some shit happens. If there's gas in this bitch it's more likely that shit'll just seep into your eyes or burn your fuckin' flesh off as anythin' else." Lizzie grumbles, nodding toward Grace. "Look, I don't know what the fuck all is waitin' in there. Think of this shit as on the job trainin'. Ya don't need to shoot nothin' unless I'm already trying to shoot the shit out of it and then just spray at it. Maybe the asshole will take cover or somethin' and hopefully you ain't got to shoot anythin' at all." The human's eyes flick over Grace and the new firebird moving nearby with a little nod an a reassuring smile.

They walked into the lab, an almost stifling warmth pervading the area and putting a nice sheen of sweat along her body underneath the armor. "Access door. If any of you know lots about that shit go pop it or I'll try." She says, heading over toward the envelope to open it up and check out what was left behind.

Loveblade looks over to grace and hands over a few items, quickly looking her over "I have a few more things for you, here." smiling she looks at Lizzie and grins, long hollow fangs out as she smiles "You got it M'Lady, let's get this shit done!" pulling gear out of her pack and smiling "Keep this on you after we're done too. If we hit flooding it will be more than handy for you. "And looks to Dio, testing her comms "Hey Furr-foot, any sign of trouble up there, let me know. Good to have you with.

Grace return's Meek's gesture, and gives her a smile. "Well, I don't mean I don't know if I'd be able to handle shooting something. I'd just probably miss," she says with a smirk. She accepts the items from Loveblade, and for the most part stores them in her backpack. "Thanks," she says. She walks back over by Lizzie, and chuckles softly at her string of profanities. "Yeah, let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Dio looks at Love and shakes his head. "While I do need to breathe, I don't need anything at the moment. Should the time come, I'll be sure to grab something." Looking around, he does his best to spot something that might endanger the group. However, he picks up nothing. Noticing that it's been getting hotter and hotter as they press onwards, he decides to become a walking thermostat by slowly cooling down the area around him, getting colder and colder until it's a more reasonable temperature.

"I'm afraid I don't know much about computers. I'm sure someone else can handle it quite well." Hearing Love and Lizze, he nods his head and readies his shotgun. "Very well, I understand. Let's not split the party to much. We'll investigate the terminal and envelope, then check out the east door once we've gathered all the information. I'll cover you all."

Meek takes out her radio one last time, "It's not working at all now..." she says mostly under her breathe, putting it away with a sigh. She pulls her wings about herself, letting them warm the air about her while making her way beside Lizzie, "What's inside?" she asks.

Dio's ears does pick up a.. dripping sound coming from the eastern door. It seems to echo in there as well. Strange! As for the envelope, it seems to be a technical manual for a fearsome new robotic defender of some sort. A melding of organics and deadly metal. Using only the brain as the "driver" of the vehicle. Designed for those decorated soldiers that have sustained heavy damage. A last resort, perhaps. It reads like a technical manual highlighting the functions of it:

Loveblade looks up at Dio, "Hmm, I should take a look..." bringing her computer out of sleep mode and taking a multi-tool out of her belt while she approaches the terminal "Can anyone give me a hand with this?" she says, bending over and resting back "I need someone to watch out for me while I work, can't do both" as she starts to check over the machine, reaching for the housing to check components.

"I'll watch," Grace says. "I wouldn't be much help with the computer, but I can make sure nobody sneaks up on you." She walks over near the avian, and places a hand on her holstered pistol. "What is it you're trying to do?" she asks her.

Lizzie stows the resperator Loveblade provided for the moment, continuing her work on in the lab as they moved around. "Well... fuck. Some sort of bastard plays way to much fuckin' warhammer before p-day or some shit like that. Looks like we got maybe a robocop giant fucker walkin' around with a huge ass turret in there. Don't say if they fuckin' finished it but I'd bet it's built and this is a damn supply notice and tech specs. With all the fuckin' heat around this it's probably gone batshit nuts too by the fuckin' specs." Baring anyone else commenting she slips the paper back into the envelope, storing it in her pack for return to RSX on completion of the mission. "Dio's watchin' you just get to fuckin' work on that bitch. Shouldn't be too hard. Anythin' croppin' up Dio? I can't smell or here near as fuckin' much as infected can."

Meek jumps a little as she's touched, "Oh, just something I do when a little scared" she admits quietly, hoping she's out of ear shot of the others. Uncurling her wings she takes a breathe. "I'm Meek by the way" she chirps in more songfully, "Or, that's my name rather". She gives an avian smile, her eyes softening. After whispering something in Grace's ear she giggles a little and listens at the door to the east.

Something seemed a bit off. Trying to drown out the conversation, Dio focuses in on the eastern door, hearing a rather mysterious dripping noise. "How strange..." he whispers under his breath before looking at Lizzie and listening to her report. "I'm not sure what this fourty-kay is, but I do know Robocop. It's probably safe to assume that we might have a powerful enemy on our hands. Best to keep on watch. I wonder if those specs could've designated a weak point?" Clearing his throat, he uses his shotgun to point towards the east door. "And I hear a strange dripping sound coming from this door. Something could come rushing out of it at any moment. Please prepare yourselves."

It takes some fiddling to get the terminal working again. Seems the wires had been fried and needed to be replaced. It'll take Loveblade awhile to get it working, but nothing she can't handle. Meanwhile, the incessant dripping continues from the eastern door. It sounds more like a leaky faucet then anything else now that you've gotten some time to listen in.

"If you count gettin' fuckin' hot and going crazy a weak point... Shoot for the god damn face plate if it opens up. Chances are if ya got any shit that'll blow through that damn armor it'll kill us all at the same fuckin' time." Lizzie says, giving Dio a nod and keeping watch while the terminal gets fixed up. "I'm bettin' somewhere behind that damn door is some stairs or more office. If the fuckin' terminal controls a 'vator let's finish off this floor. I'd rather run down some stairs than fuck with an old elevator if we can. So, time for some god damn introductions. My name is Lizzie. Pleased to fuckin' meet y'all."

Loveblade finishes her repair, a card had fallen out of its slot slightly, and after a careful check an putting a screw there to hold it in place, Love checks the power supply, looking to make sure it has juice. "Tanks all, it's going to be fine" she says putting the case back together, and sitting up, tasting the air with her tongue for the different smells. Not trying to identify any immediate dangers, but rather get an overall sense of what has been making this place its home. He brow creases as she looks to Lizzie "Hold onto your butts!" and stops, turning to look at the vehicle off to the side. "shit..." and opens up the case, going back to work "Guys, check and see if there are any connections to that big damn vehicle over there, I dont' want to fire up the controls and get shot for my fucking trouble" getting back to work.

Loveblade finishes her repair, a card had fallen out of its slot slightly, and after a careful check an putting a screw there to hold it in place, Love checks the power supply, looking to make sure it has juice. "Tanks all, it's going to be fine" she says putting the case back together, and sitting up, tasting the air with her tongue for the different smells. Not trying to identify any immediate dangers, but rather get an overall sense of what has been making this place its home. He brow creases as she looks to Lizzie "Hold onto your butts!" and stops, looking at the system with her brow creased "shit..." she pulls out more tools "guys, I don't want to fire up the controls without knowing what else it will trigger. While the power is down, could you disable the security measures here, please. I don't want to fire up the controls and get shot for my trouble, or accidentally start a fire. It's kinda...messy down here, and not in any way I like."

Love gets back to work on the box, checking leads for issues.

"I'll, uh, just watch that door," Grace says. "I don't really have any technical skills." She pulls the pistol out of her holster, and trains it on the door. "But this monster robot thing, it's vulnerable to heat, right?" She looks over to Meek. "Can you breathe fire or anything like that?"

"Right," Dio confirms, nodding his head towards Lizzie. "Clear the area out floor by floor is the way to do things. Quite the strange sound that is though." Watching Love perform her repairs, the lion dips into a small bow and quickly comes back up. "The name is Dio. I've met a few of you before, but we'll exchange more personal information later. We should probably get to investigating this door before something jumps out at us."

A few quick sparks shoot off the phoenix's wings, falling harmlessly to the ground. "Fire...I can do fire" she replies, winking. Meek stands clear of the door, her eyes trained while standing ready.

Meek stands at the ready, beside Grace.

Having collectively decided to check out what's making everyone nervous, Dio prods open the door with his shotgun. Seems the source is quite innocent as the eastern door opens up to an impressively big bathroom. A huge mirror covers the northern part of the wall, placed just above several sinks. To the south are a number of toilet stalls.

Meanwhile, Loveblade has managed to finally finish her repairs. The terminal finally flickers to life. The black screen fills with glowing green text.

System Comp3mi1#d, manual imput rqrd. Variable misconfiguration

1 3 6 10 15 21 28 36 45

Input correct logical integer:

"Unless the bathroom has some particularly nasty ass toilets it looks like that fuckin' mystery is solved." Lizzie says, moving back toward where Loveblade was working at the door and taking a little peek. "How the fuck are things going over here. This floor seems pretty fuckin' clear."

Loveblade finishes her work and stands, looking at the terminal "Everyone, get together here, I've got the controls up!" she says, loud enough to be heard, but not TOO loud, her wings folding about her like a cloak as she looks at the computer, adjusting her armor and pulling out her weapons, setting her micro-computer to record and turning on her shoulder-cam. "We're about to get this show on the road!"

Meek takes a breathe, "A bathroom....really?" she says incredulously, peeking in before entering. Taking a few steps about she decides everything is normal enough before heading back into the main room, fixing a lock of hair.

Dio lets out a rather sharp laugh after opening up the mysterious and spooky bathroom. "Hmph," he mutters under his breath with another chuckle before leaving the room entirely. "Better safe than sorry as they say. And well done on the controls, ma'am." Curious as to what the terminal had to offer, he peeks over and scratches his head. It's best to let other people handle the computer mumbo jumbo.

Grace giggles a bit. "Well, that's one mystery solved." She holsters her gun again, and peeks over Loveblade's shoulder at the screen she can barely read anyway. "So, does it say where the robot thing is?"

"Hn, fifty five. Well you're the computer bitch. Let's get this show fuckin' movin'." Lizzie says, holding her pistol ready just in case and moving to a good firing position out of line of Dio. "Just open the fuckin' thing and back the fuck off just in case."

Loveblade looks to see everyone has arrived and smiles at Grace. Love raises an eyebrow to Lizzie, and says "First come first served, m'dear. We're all in this together, and I need you as much as you need me. Let's bend this bitches tail back and push on in" holding herself ready, and putting an insulating layer between herself and the terminal, she presses 55, and enter, moving out of direct line of sight from the door and training her Laser Rifle there.

The blast doors open up into a square control room. Most of the equipment looks either turned off or broken, except for one screen that seems to be active. To the east, the room opens up into a large circular room. In the center of it appears to be some sort of telescope, except it can't possibly be looking at anything except the bedrock above it. Perhaps it's used to measure something else. In the western wall an alcove holds a strange looking robot. Perhaps not that strange given the Theta army's penchant for robotic creations. It is large, bulky and fitted with a pretty impressive looking gun assembly on the left arm. The right one appears to be made for manipulating objects. Or crushing skulls, perhaps. It's bipedal. Infact, it seems like something you've read about before. It is quite inactive though. A symbol appears to have been hastily painted onto the off-white chassi. A circle with lines radiating out from it. It appears to have been done in some reddish-brown liquid.

"Is that the robot thing the note was talking about?" Grace asks as the group survays the room. "If it is, maybe we shouldn't go in there right away." She keeps her voice down, not wanting to wake it up, if it is, in fact, 'asleep' somehow.

Lizzie nods toward Grace, eyeing the robot closly as she looks it over carefully. "Uh, yeah. Hey Dio, you have fuckin' point. Go check that shit out." She says, moving near the doorway and just peeking inside without actually entering the room. It wasn't active at least but the strange circle was something out of an old horror movie or the like and last time she heard about anything like this where were strange sorcerers and an odd monster that ended up getting shot. "I'll cover your ass."

Dio looks around the room, observing its curious features and especially taking note of the lumbering robot in the corner. "Yes, we'll have to find a way to not wake that up. That symbol is very interesting. If we can manage to shut down whatever is causing the radio interference, then perhaps we can simply let it be. Or maybe we could sabatage it now before it has a chance to spring up? The painting upon it makes me think of the sun. Perhaps it's solar powered or something? Regardless, we'll be needing someone to investigate that large screen over there." Nodding to Lizzie, he readies his shotgun and cautiously slips inside the large area, making his way towards the screen in question.

Loveblade moves into the room, stopping just behind the door and investigating corners with her sights, assisting in clearing the room. "I got nothing, how are we Dio, guys; we clear? Someone doing a security sweep?" she smiles at the giant robot, getting damp at the thought of that much hardware "Gods he's beautiful..." she looks it over closely, making notes in her mind, and wondering what it would look like in her colors "Hmmmmmm, hello beautiful ~<3"

The large robot doesn't seem to mind the, relatively, small figures scurrying about in the entrance. Nor does it move as Dio slips into the room. The active screen seems to be stuck with an error as well as it blinks:

System reconfigured. Data key corrupt.

100100 110001 1000000

Next key missing. Manual override required:

Grace places a paw on Loveblade's shoulder, and pulls her back a little bit. "Don't get too close," she says. "It could still be hostile or something." She turns around, and faces the rest of the group. "So uh, a couple minutes ago, I thought I heard something through the static on my comm. Anyone else hear something?"

Meek watches the robot hawkishly from the other side of the room. Even before coming in she seemed a bit shaken about something, her eyes flitting over to Dio on occassion for some reason.

Hrmph, more computer business. Good thing there were a lot of technical people around to deal with these issues. "It seems clear of hostiles," Dio says back towards the group, lowering his gun and taking a good look at the robot. "You know, I bet I could weld this thing to the ground with one of my nanomagics. Touching it could set it off, so I won't do it unless you all agree.

Lizzie slips into the room, eyeing the robot as she moves over toward the panel. "NOt sure if you should fuckin' mess with that shit. Could be valuable salvage to RSX after if we can get it out and someone can reprogram that shit." She was tempted to wait to double check but as with the last one this was a pretty easy little puzzle at the end and one finger went out to start pressing in the last key. '1010001'

There is no way to actually further interact with the screen, but what is there is readable in plain text. It seems to be a mission log, of sorts. Seems this station picked up a transmission from an unknown source that had been known to transmit encrypted data previously. It was surprisingly unencrypted, breaking all previous protocols. The information was in regards to recent studies of the sun's relations to a quantum vacuum. The data was a garbled mess of obscure information and bizarrely outdated language. What could be gleaned from it though were very clear specifications for angles and spectral configurations for viewing specific parts of the sun. Attempts of following these directions using telescopes in low orbit ruined the orbital equipment. All other manned stations that attempted it immediately cut off their contact with their surroundings.

The large circular room to the east is a bit more visible now that you're inside the "control" room proper. The walls are lined with various control boards, most seem inactive. Beneath the telescope is a small, tidy pile of what seems to be ash. The "telescope" itself seems to be hinged on a number of servos and gears. Judging by the handles mounted on the sides, it would seem it is also possible to adjust manually. Affixed to the device is another small screen that seems active.

Meek notices the movement first, she point skittishly, "Did you see that?!?" the phoenix chirps.

Loveblade looks to the pile of Ash and back at the screen, shifting her memory storage from the main hard-drive on her computer to a portable chip with loaded OS. "Fuck...fuck." she glances around and reaches for her Satchel, fingering the crystal skull she had inside, opening herself just enough to sense the area and FEEL if there were any disturbances, anything that did not, should not, be here "Ik, nat~u met Dor'I

Lizzie clicks her tongue, looking over to the robot and tehn back toward the newly lit screen on the telescope. "Well... you want to look at that shit? I ain't sure what's going on in this bitch but it's freakin' the birdy the fuck out it seems." She says, moving near the robot to inspect it a little closer. The strange reports weren't quite what she had expected here but if it was a strange garbled language maybe it sounded like static when spoken and it was something like the SETI stuff. Or it was just static and tinfoil was in this year.

Loveblade looks to the pile of Ash and back at the screen, shifting her memory storage from the main hard-drive on her computer to a portable chip with loaded OS. "Fuck...fuck." she glances around and reaches for her Satchel, fingering the crystal skull she had inside, opening herself just enough to sense the area and FEEL if there were any disturbances, anything that did not, should not, be here "Ik, nat~u met Dor'I" her fingers fly to the computer and and she slings her pack around, rooting inside for a moment as she looks at the group, watching Lizzie hash at the controls. Frowning to herself "Hey be careful with that shit, don't want to break a good toy."

Dio continues looking at the robot and rubs his chin. "Perhaps you're correct. I'd rather not mess with the robot. What I find particularly interesting is how these machines are still operating. At least some of them. Usually nanties like to eat out good chunks of machines and render them quite broken." Curious as to what's going on with the telescope, he walks closer to Lizzie and crosses his arms across his shoulder. "Think you're able to make heads or tails as to what exactly this place was used for? Mostly, we need to get rid of whatever is causing this radio interference so we can report back to our employers."

Loveblade opens herself further, her thumb rolling over the surface of the stone in her satchel, fingers brush the memories she placed within and focus deepened, her heart beats loud in her ears and eyes seem to become mor luminous, lit from within and clouded, as though sun danced on the surface of a pond. "I think..." she gripped her fist tight, and held still, silence surrounding her for a moment "Therefore I am."

Lizzie reaches out to slowly manipulate the claw hand, twisting it to give the telescope a giant mechanical middle finger. "Yeah, anyway as far as I can fuckin tell." She says, making sure it was up high. The most supreme of middle fingers that could crush other smaller ones before it with shiny metal joy. "This bullshit place was a spacial observatory for lookin' at the fuckin' sun. Since whatever the fuck they were doin' in orbit blew the shit out of the equipment I'm guessin' that fucker ain't a normal telescope. They used to fuckin' detect strange particles and shit by usin' fuck tons of water and rock to slow the bastards down. I'm guessin' this shit deals with that."

Meek settles herself, her feathers unfurling. She convinces herself that she's just seeing things, giving a slow blink before deciding to approach the robot. Standing to the right of Dio she looks at him unusually long before making her way to the pile of dust. She runs her fingers through the dust, smelling the redolence on her fingertips.

Grace giggles a little at Lizzie's treatment of the robot. "So, they were looking at the sun through rocks?" She appears a bit confused. "I really don't get what's going on here. But if you need something punched, let me know."

The giant robot now happily flips everyone the bird as Dio approaches the screen, the text on it is readable. For once, it doesn't seem to be any puzzle to solve here. It reads simply "Array misalignment. Servos malfunctioning. Restart or manual reconfiguration required." It seems to be a touch screen and it has some rather archaic text on a few buttons to push. One of them does read RESTART.

Loveblade smiles at the joke, nod-nods to Lizzie and walks over to check the robot for signs of modification. "I don't know exactly what happened here, but look, this unencrypted data went from station to station, and at each point after it did they went dark. Why, or WHAT caused that, I don't know, but..." she looks at you all "Just be very, VERY careful. Something here isn't right, and since there weren't any explosions that took people out, no burn marks that I can see other than that pile of ash, it very well might have affected their minds." she stops and looks at Lizzie ~murring "...very careful." Then turns to the Robot and looks for obvious signs that it was modified, going to the control panel and checking for a recording read-out. "These things sometimes record everything they do, for 'Insurance' purposes."

Listening to Lizzie, some of the information went a bit over his head, but he found himself understanding the main idea. "Fascinating," he comments, nodding his head. "Thank you for the information. This will make for some fine salvage when we report back. There should be loads to study as well. A wonderful find." Suddenly, something felt... strange. He couldn't quite place it. Dread. The lion shivers and raises his weapon slightly, ear twitching at the sound coming from his communicator. "Something is amiss," he comments in a hushed tone. "Another static burst went over my communicator. And something... Here," he says, pointing towards a pile of ash. "There's a symbol under there. This needs investigating immediately."

Grace sultrily growls, "Aha, so I wasn't the only one who's been hearing static!" Grace says excitedly. Nobody had answered her the first time she brought it up. "I'll take a look under the ash." She turns around, and sweeps the debries away with her tail, then turns back to look at it."

"Oh goodie, a creepy symbol in the death research center goes into your head. God damn fuckin' nanite shit brain-bangin' assholes with a particle spray like a fuckin' cumshot from the universe." Lizzie mutters, eyeing the ash pile. "Eh, maybe Grace. I don't really fuckin' know what the hell is going on here." It was around then that the ash was cleared out giving a nice little view of whatever was underneath at least. "Well keep me updated on whatever shit is in the memory banks, thanks."

Loveblade continues to work at the Robot, looking through the data and only briefly glancing at the symbol, recording it with her camera before getting back to work "I'll have something in a minute, scanning storage for audio and video files now"

As Loveblade hooks up her devices to what she suspects might be the control panel of the robot, something strange happens. The screen on her equipment briefly flickers, displaying a small dot with a larger circle around it before it starts showing static. Static that quickly seems to overwrite every last bit of data on her devices at an extremely rapid pace. The very same symbol can be found under that ash pile. Seared into the bedrock from.. well, it's hard to tell where it's from to begin with. But it's definetly there. A round, filled in circle with a larger circle around it.

"That's a symbol of the sun" Meek chimes in after a long quiet. She leans over to get a closer look, "It was associated with Helios or Apollo I think". She puts a finger to her beak, thinking.

Dio crouches down slightly to get a better look at the mysterious symbol and looks towards the others. "Apollo, eh?" Looking back towards the symbol, he gets back up and pulls a communicator out of his suit pocket. "We really need to get this done soon," he says to no one in particular. "The objective is to get rid of this interference and then we can call in our findings."

Loveblade shouts out "FUCK! GODDAMNED MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT SOFTWARE EATING WORM FILLED CUNT NUGGETS! FUCK!" she cries, quickly disconnecting the power pack from her mini-com, and shutting down her ear piece "There's a goddamned virus here, and it eats through firewalls like a motherfucking plague." glaring up at the big bot with malice in her eye "What do you have to say for yourself, chuckles!" she snarls, punching the desk with her steel nails forward, making a hole in the top "FUCK! Just....damn" taking a deep breath, she looks at the group. "This thing moves fast. Like it thinks..."

Lizzie shakes off the static sounding out, pushing such things to the back of her mind as irrelevant and clearly the influence of a bad speaker hissing somewhere. She steps away form the symbol closer to the telescope, intent on taking a little look through it to see what was going on now. "Also black plague, if it was on a god damn person at least. How let's just get this shit taken care of before the world decides to try to put its one eyed yoghurt lobber on our faces with whatever the fuck static it's usin' the air like a cum dumpster with. Looks like Apollo just pounded into your shit with computer herp."

Grace stands up, and glances around. "Well, I..." she trails off, and shakes her head a bit. "Hm. I feel kinda..." She stumbles, and reaches out to the control panel to catch herself. She ends up face-to-face with a big, shiny, red button. Well. That's just begging to get pushed, isn't it? She giggles a bit, and seems a bit out of sorts as she pushes the button with her nose.

Several things seem to happen all at once the moment Grace's finger hits the button. Several motors spring into action and reposition the telescope, pointing it straight at the symbol below which immediately starts to glow red. And hot, the three close can feel the heat radiating from it.

The friendly bird flipping robot lumbers to life, thankfully for it, quite un-sabotaged. And armed. So very armed.

Everyones com channels go berzerk. The static crackles and pops and soon an endless loop of a synthesized voice saying "Burn a path to earth. Prepare them for the arrival." can be heard.

Lizzie turned as it started whiring up, claw sliding over the gauntlet on her combat armor and charging up with crackling power. She rushes toward it, dodging and weaving just in case it was trying to get a targeting lock, and moving along to close with the primary weapon arm. "Bring it bitches!"

Loveblade unsheathes her claws from her gloves, taking off the kevlar layer that stops them from hurting people, and moves to immobilize the robot long enough to get others in range, her engulfing coils start shooting out to bind the arms as soon as the begin to move, engulfing coils going about again and again

Not paying attention, Dio didn't notice Grace being possessed or something similar to head over and press the button. Hearing the bursts over his comm and the rather large robot spriniging to life, the lion bites his lip and looks towards the door they came through. "We could bring him outside and call for reinforcements, but if you desire to stand here, let us test our luck," he procliams, raising his shotgun to his shoulder and preparing for battle.

Meek looks strangely focused, closing her eyes for the minutes within seconds while ducking behind a pillar. It's only a moment later that she yells out, "I have a plan!" She flaps her wings, spreading hot embers everywhere to get her team's attention. "Dio! Go upstairs to the bathroom and wait for a signal, Love and Lizzie...we need a couple seconds time, try to keep the robot down here. Grace, we need one good shot from you girl!"

The murder bot seems quite unhindered by the coils wrapping around its limbs as it fires on the approaching Lizzie with it's vicious gun, spraying the entire doorway with a hail of bullets. The temperature from the symbol by Dio's feet seems to only be increasing in temperature. Meek isn't exactly helping keeping things cool either as she rapidly starts increasing the temperature around her as well, preparing for.. something!

Flames build around the phoenix as her wings erupt into twin torrents that kiss and roll across the ceiling. The firebird looks strangely relaxed, almost serene as the overbearingly hot flame encompasses her. Taking as much cover as she possibly can she wills the fire not at the robot but underneath it, turning the concrete molten red.

Dio tilts his head at Meek and scratches his head. "If you want someone to react to a signal, they have to have something to do when said signal is released you know! Tell me what your plan is first!" He shouts back, looking towards the action and grimacing under his breath. That symbol... Perhaps if it were disrupted... Cracking his knuckles, the lion lets out a small roar and heads for the telescope, grabbing the handles and unleashing all the strength he can muster to shift the telescope away from the symbol!

Lizzie slips through the hail of fire, dodging around the bullets just barely by keeping just one step ahead of the targetting algorthm. Her right arm, electic claw flexing, surged up with a flush of energy as adrenaline flowed through her body. "Shoot this fucker!" She yells out, grasping for the barrels of the weapon and try to crush them all at once to halt the current stream of fire.

Meek says in concise, calm words, "I forgot that the bathroom wasn't directly above us, this should still work". She nods to Dio, "I'm going to overheat it and maybe even melt the sand a steel in the concrete. Once I rush it, if Grace shoots me...it will trigger my rebirth and the explosion will hopefully be enough. That should trap it if we cool it fast enough with water from the pipes that lead to the bathroom, hopefully there will even still be a fire system here.

Loveblade takes a moment to tighten her body, leaning in to hiss "You're going down, Mommy's Gonna Fuck You UP!" then flexing her body for a full throw in a Gigantic Body Slam!

Slowly, the telescope moves as Dio puts all his might into shoving it aside. Claws actually digging into the floor as he pushes. Accompanied by groaning motors, it does move. The glow slowly begins to fade from the strange rune. The voice, however, does not. But it does shift where it's coming from. Instead, it seems to be played from speakers mounted somewhere around the robots head.

As Lizzie heroically leaps ontop of the massive robot. Distracted by the sudden burst of warmth underneath it caused by the phoenix, it doesn't even have time to react. With a roar, she lifts up her arm-mounted claw, it glints in the air as it's lifted above her head before it comes striking down with incredible force on the gun-spewing arm, causing it severe damage, rending it quite unusable. For now. To add insult to injury, the entire construct lurches off balance as Loveblade slams into it with her entire bodyweight behind the blow. It tries to grab her by the throat with her free arm but the strike was enough to make it simply flail wildly in the air.

Grace has been standing back up until now, because holy shit the button made the robot wake up. She's just glad everyone handled it so well. It looks like the fight's almost over, but she sure as hell isn't going to let it end without doing some damage. She charges at the bot with a massive roar, shoulder-checks it, and starts trying to tear off anything she can grab.

Lizzie laughs wildly as the horrid grinding sounds through the air and the entire thing tips over from Loveblade's heavy blow. Her feet kick off a bit from the shoulder to land out of the way from the crashing thing before she rushes in once more, claw flashing out to try to rend teh gun arm right off the armored body.

Loveblade takes off the head and then moves to any sign of the symbol that was not made by their own hands, destroying the copies found in the lab, on hard drives in the floor...

The fearsome robot didn't turn out to be quite as threatening as the specs would have led you to believe. Perhaps some clever PR firm lied to whoever bought the specs. Who knows! As it stands, the combined efforts of the agents tear it to little, shiny bits with teeth, claw and pure force of will.

The threat is still present though, as Loveblade points out. The machinery in here can definetly not be trusted. And that symbol on the floor should most certanly not be left as it is. You make short work of it, with a bit of help of construction nanomagic as well as pure brute strength, it's now unrecognizable as what it once was. The lab is however a bit too big to dismantle all on your own and after going topside, you call in some reinforcements. Breathing fresh, clean, cool air has never felt so good and it doesn't take long until an RSX cleanup crew arrives shortly thereafter to tear the place down, hopefully putting an end to the infection. For now, atleast.