Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble Part 1 - RPLOG
Participants
Date
4/8/2013
Log
Well, that's it. With a couple of hours of preparation-time, the agents that have responded to Zephyr's call to arms should be arriving any moment. A full briefing on the reports have been given, and warnings have been issued to each and every one of them.
As it turns out, the reports Zephyr recieved were correct, and the first thing the party would be greeted by is a downright massacre, with dead and wounded mutants everywhere...
Caylin huffs loudly as she steps out of an alleyway, approaching the given meeting place. Her trip here had been largely uneventful, but she'd suffered a nasty surprise when a brief encounter with a Skunk Beast had demonstrated that her nanite buffer was on the fritz. Fortunately, her ability to fight was still largely uncompromised, and her glaive had done an admirable job of keeping the beast off of her until she was able to give it the slip. Now all she had to do was locate the Zephyr representative who had put out the call...
Maxwell had been quite surprised as the call went out, and certainly, the raccoon had little reason to be assisting the company. He wasn't on their payroll by any more than technicality, and certainly, he wasn't the kind of asset they would have pulled leverage to obtain. But when the warnings went out, he couldn't help but develop his own interest in things. After all, it wasn't quite a case of simply benig out of bubble. Something far more fascinating was occuring here. What hadn't surprised him was how few people had shown up to answer such a call. After all, it was quite the departure from normal conditions. Nonetherless, on the journey out, he had checked over his things... And as he passed out of the bubble, he couldn't help but give a small grunt at the sudden weight of his pack, augmentations cutting out without the materials to power them. He'd been prepared for this. Prepared for a journey out from the dome that made such technology function in the ways he was used to. Finally, though, as he approached the meeting spot, death was what met him. A shadow long since forgotten inside the city. Long moments passed as he just watched, eyes roaming over the display... Soon closing with a wince. Paws clutched at his firearm, his trusted bolt launcher... Gripping it tightly. For all he knew, whatever did this was still here.
'Well, this is different...' thought Diashi as he cast a sweeping gaze over the strewn bodies of the dying and the dead. He knew something was up by the way his own nanites seemed to react 'sluggishly' in their upkeep of his body's myriad of adaptations. Walking closer to one of the more 'dead' bodies, he knelt down and began to examine it; apparently paying no mind to the typical respect one might show for the dead. "What killed you?" he questioned aloud to the dead creature as his mind wandered to the briefing he'd gotten about the area. Messed up nanites were never a thing to be trifled with...
A large, armored vehicle stands nearby, quite probably powered by nano-batteries, akin to the helicopters both Zephyr and RSX employ. Atop the thing is a large machine-gun, mostly used to keep ferals at a distance for the arriving agents.
Soon enough, the burly wolf manning the gun spots the trio, politely pointing the gun the other way for the time being. "Right. Hrmmm. That's all they could get, huh?" his companion on the ground mumbles, looking from one person to the next. "Right, if that's everyone?"
"Now, you see the full extent of the problem, methinks," the female cheetah excplaims, looking up at the large wolf. "Now, me and Paul here've gone through the trouble of clearing a landing-site for you, but it seems every viable path is blocked for the car," she explains, looking towards Diashi intently. "Oi! Do I even have your attention?"
Maxwell turns his gaze toward the vehicle, and the two who stood beside it. With a nod, he steps over toward them, the grip on his weapon loosening, relaxing as he catches the uniform. "What's our task?", comes his first question, even as his paces draw to a stop. "Are we scouting the area, or...?"
"Calm yourself," Diashi said as he plucked the photo from the dead feral's paw and looked it over, "Most of our nanite abilities may be gone, but I can still hear you." He tucked the photo away before standing and making his way to the vehicle. "So, what's the job exactly and when do I get paid?"
"Your job is to figure out what the fuck is going on, and if possible, figure out how to stop it," the cheetah explains, oddly calm while she says such, looking out again. "Right, if you two'd care to drag the third inside? She seems to have a slight sunstroke there," the feline mumbles. "We'll make sure she stays safe while you two explore the area," Paul adds as he leans down from his gun for a moment. "Right, Luce, got the map ready for them?" he adds, looking towards the Cheetah as she moves into the APC.
"You two'd better follow her. Luce doesn't like to be kept waiting, take that from me," Paul murrs softly, whincing lightly as the voice of 'Luce' practically bellows from inside. "I heard that!"
Maxwell keeps still, nodding at the orders with a surprising, almost instinctual professionalism. As the cheetah's piece concludes, he turns to step over to the last of the 'trio', lifting her up and bringing the poor thing back with him. "Roger that.", comes his response as he returns, taking the girl inside to find a place to lay her down...
Diashi shrugs, noting that his question about payment was pointedly ignored. "I assume we're going to be limiting the search to a reasonable area or in a specific direction?" He turns slightly, casting a glance out over the killing field and beyond thanks to his unnaturally sharp vision. "Cause this," he motions to the expanse, "is a bit much."
"Right. That's why we're showing you the map," 'Luce' rumbles softly as the duo moves inside, splaying a large parchment out on the metal table in the car. "Right. Right now, we're here," the cat points at the map, which seems to be an old map of Fairhaven. "This is where the nanites are going on the fritz, and this is an estimate of they outright stop working at all," the cat points out at two concentric circles, with the APC in the middle of the buffer-zone.
"You three... Two," she corectes herself. "You two are going to figure out what's going on in that dead zone. The car can't go any further, because of these," she points at a set of marks. "Each of those is a roaring fire of rubble and mutants... Someone or something doesn't want heavy equipment in there. That's where you come in. Go in, figure out what's wrong, and report back. If you can fix it, fix it."
Placing the sunstroke stricken girl onto a stretcher, Maxwell steps over toward 'Luce' at the table, just in time to be briefed on locales. Slipping off his pack, he pulls his laptop from the confines, quickly flipping it open. As the locations are explained to the pair of them, he types something in, some series of points and lines of words, before turning it about to take a picture of the map. "Alright... Give me just a moment and I should have this sorted. Then I'll be set to depart.", he explains.
"And what's the time frame of this operation?" Diashi asks as he carefully commits the map to memory. "While I don't really have much else gonig on at the moment, I'm not going to blindly search around forever in an area where I'm no longer as immortal as I usually am."
"Hrmmm. I like this one," Luce purrs, looking up at Maxwell with a coy smirk, before turning to Diashi. "Simple. However much time you can put into it. No report on why this is happening, no pay," she adds coolly, clearly not taking as much of a liking to the humanoid person as she does to Maxwell.
"We've sent one or two people out scouting, and while run down, this building seems like your best way in. We expect you two to radio in every thirty minutes to let us know you're still alive. And be sure to stay alert. we're not sure who or what murdered all these poor sods, but I doubt they'd care about one or two more or less."
Finally, the raccoon flips his device shut again, slipping it back into his pack before taking another glance over the paper copy. "Alright. Way I see it, we can check on our entrance route while my laptop sorts out its processes. By then I should have a proper layout to follow." He gives another nod at the order to report in every so often, soon tapping a couple of places with a pad, following some unsaid thought. "Is there anything else we should know before we depart?", he finally asks.
"Sounds simple enough to me," Diashi says to Luce. "Sneak in, pull a quick recon, and (hopefully) get out with some data." He glances over at Maxwell. "So, how good are you at stealth ops?"
Another sultry purr leaves Luce's muzzle as she looks between the two for a moment, tail flicking lightly. The feline seems to ponder for a moment, nodding softly. "If possible, use nonlethal methods. If anything's still alive in there, it might provide useful information," she mumbles softly, looking up for a moment, before looking to the map for a moment, sighing lightly.
She looks back and forth, feigning a small smile, and nodding. "I guess that's all, yeah. Get in, get info, see if you can fix things, get out."
Maxwell doesn't seem to pay much heed to those purrs, hefting his weapon to check the side tracks. Darts, coloured blue and green, fill them for the moment, but as he thinks about things, he soon removes the blue ones, placing them in a puch before shifting to the pouch alongside to replace their slots with more green ones. "Non-lethal isn't a problem... Especially when you're used to things not staying down the first time." As he's asked about his aptitude in covert ops, he has to shrug a little. "Its been some time... But I've certainly been put through the paces."
Diashi stares at Luce for a time at her mention of 'non-lethal' takedowns, his lack of visible expression making it impossible to guage his thoughts on the matter. That is, until he speak again. "Fine, I'll try to keep the casualties to a minimum, but no promises," he comments idly. "If things go south, I won't hesitate to put someone down...permanently. Acceptable?"
Luce seems to hesitate for a moment, looking at Diashi, mumbling a soft "acceptable," before looking away silently. Gone is the seductive huntress, and what's left is an almost nervous-looking kitten. "Right, off you go now," she growls softly, looking between the two a little, before averting her eyes again, mumbling softly and simply staring at the map.
Anyone who'd bother to take a close look would see one building encircled in red, with something unreadable scribbled besides it, but that's not important, is it?
Maxwell merely observes for a few moments, watching the woman's demeanour and reaction. Eventually, though, he turns, stepping out, motioning for his partner to follow. "Listen.", he almost whispers once the other is outside. "I tap something with a dart, it won't be a problem. And judging by how she's acting? I'd seriously suggest we stick to the tranquilizers."
Diashi wanted to remain behind and question Luce about her sudden change in attitude, but apparently he was needed outside.
"You do as you please, but, frankly, I don't give a damn about protecting the life of someone or something trying to kill me," he stated evenly after listening to the Coon's suggestion. "Maybe if we were back under the dome and not completely mortal, I'd give some thought to it. Not here, not where I'm vulnerable. But we shouldn't need to worry about that at all if we can keep from being spotted."
Soft sniffling can be heard from the inside as Paul looks down at the two from above, sighing softly. "Just go, you two. Try and figure out whatever happened out there, and take care of it," he mumbles, looking down at the two and nodding a little towards the 'coon, pointing both of them at a building besides the fire. "You want that one. Careful on the higher floors, it's a little unstable there," he adds softly, before looking into the APC for a moment, sighing.
Maxwell glances back to see Paul again, giving a small nod in return. "Right.", he gives in assent, turning to start walking... But after a few steps, he halts for a moment, turning his head back to catch the cheetah in the eyes. "And tell her I hope she'll be alright.", come concerned words, before once more, the raccoon starts to walk, heading back off in the direction that had been pointed out to him earlier.
Diashi nods to Paul. "Thanks for the tip." He turns his hawk-like vision toward the building, looking for any noticeable trouble between their current location and their destination.
"You never said whether you were any good at being covert," he asided to Max as he continued his observation. The cloak wrapped around his body twitch noticeably, its movement not conforming to the local wind conditions.
