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."
Firecracker estimates the distance she had to go to get to the lab in a straight line above the trees. As she leaves the group below her, she flies that far before landing on the thick canopy. Not being able to see through the vines and leaves, she begins to burrow downwards, using her tiny body to navigate through.
Fenris snorts as he slaps aside a last vine. "Shows you for blocking a perfectly nice road," he answers the distant shriek, but not seeming overly concerned about it just yet. The tanuki considers the blocked door for a moment. "She'll catch up," he says off hand as he examines the vines. Then he does what he usually does when confronted with a locked door: He knocks. "Open up in there!" he shouts, banging the hilt of his sword on the door, "I've brought cookies!" The tubby tanuki fishes a packet of off brand sandwich cookies from his pack and waves them at the door!
Astara can't help but to be unsettled by the apparent screaming coming from the foliage, a look of apprehension all over her face as they come across the lab at last. "...Please tell me I'm not the only one hearing that screaming." While they're near the lab itself, closer to where the screams eminated from, she decides to hack a vine experimentally - and yet again, unsettling cries of pain eminate from within the lab, much louder than before... but still quite far off. The plant-centaur hyrbid closes her eyes and shivers, and stays silent for several moments before speaking again. "This might be more complicated and dangerous than we thought; I have a bad feeling this entire lab might be infested with a single, concious being of some sort. We ought to be on our best behavior if we go in, as... well, we're undoubtedly in its clutches if we do."
Arris shakes hir head at Astara. "Well, you're not. It's kinda worrying me as well. Uh, now I'm kinda glad we didn't decide to try burning the plant life and stuff. I also hope that, whatever's inside there, doesn't know that we were cutting down its parts or something." Sie shivers a little as Fenris bangs on the door. "I don't think I'll like whatever I'm going to find inside of this lab."
"It's hard -not- to hear the screaming, you know. It's not precisely a quiet thing." Phosphorus dryly notes, hunting through the foliage with light feet, yet heavy slashes to clear her way to the door. She rolls her eyes at Fenris' "polite" knocking, but otherwise queues up behind the Tankui with her knives away and carbine drawn. A small, dangling wisp ignites the air beside her, providing illumination to the otherwise dingy area. "Let's do this, I suppose."
Sroath watches the vines over the door as the knocking takes place. With his knife back in it's sheathe he waits to see if anything comes from that idea as he flicks a glance to the electronic lock.
Zophah cringes every time there is a scream, the noise unsetling to her senesitive ears. "Hopefully this entity isn't as powerful as some of the other boss-like creatures I know." When the group reaches the lab Zophah examines the doorway. "Darn. Can't sculpt it out of the way. Do you think there are windows, chimeys, or what-else we can use to get in without destroying anything?"
As Firecracker begins the arduous task of digging through the dense foliage at her minute six-inch size, the screaming does indeed offer some clues as to how far off she is. It's not that difficult to use it as a beacon to home in on the lab itself, and she'll make slow, steady progress if she keeps at it despite having hooves instead of hands or claws. The screams do indeed seem to be coming from inside the lab somewhere, though the edifice is too big to determine exactly where. In the meantime, both the door and the vines stubbornly refuse to budge due to the failure of Fenris's vaunted cookie strats, and - if the vines can perceive the wisp - they offer no obvious reaction to it. A cursory examination reveals no outside windows or alternate entrances; unless there are other ways in around the side or back of the large building, that door is the boss of the first area.
Anderson squeakily meows, "Well... uh... I c-can rig bombs to open the door. I'll... I know h-how much is enough f-for the door." He looks to the door and winces at the sounds of the screams. "Still... uhm... w-we're here to re-recover lab things. F-files, tech, and experiments. We... should leave explosions as a last resort, i-if we can't get in any other way.""
Firecracker decides the forest was a worthy opponent, but it's time to end this. With a fire in her eyes, she ignites her body with flames and blasts downward through the foliage.
"Huh," Fenris grunts, scratching his head and popping one of the cookies before stashing them, "That usually works." The tanuki sheathes his sword and pulls his long bladed spear from his back and starts to poke and slash at the vines. "No need to ruin a perfectly good door," he says as he hacks and pokes, trying to clear the door, "Anybody here more tech savvy than me? Think they can figure out how to wake up that console?" Figuring that if all of this stuff was attached to a central monster he makes one more jab into a thick cluster of vines and channels a jolt of wild electricity down the shaft of his spear. Not enough to deal any real damage, but it might inspire the living vines to loose their hold. Unless they were just vines.
Astara hrmms. "I'm afraid that, while I some knowledge of computers and electronics, they are not my strongsuit. Nor do I have electronic nanomagic, so..." She trails off, and then Fenris proves he certainly has some grasp of electricity. "Is that nanomagic, Fenris? If you can control it, it COULD be useful to power this thing."
Arris thinks for a moment. "Hey Anderson, I... Well, if someone put something important behind the door, then that would be kinda dumb. I mean, I get that it's a sliding door, if it swung open it would obviously get hit by the door. But people generally don't leave things in front of them, right?" Sie walks up to the door, running a hand over a small crack in the door before having an idea. Arris shifts into a liquid pantheress form, before pushing hir hand against the small hole and attempting to get at least hir arm in. "Nevermind. I don't think I can get through these."
Phosphorus sighs deeply, and promptly plucks a foot long crowbar out of thin air, running a finger around the frame of the door, spotting the place where the locking mechanism is placed, and promptly attempts to wedge the tip of the crowbar into the slot and pry it apart with her strength. "Just back up, back up... Someone mind scouting around the building?"
Sroath continues to stand and keep his gaze flicking around the area, intent on nothing catching them off guard.
