RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 4] - Phoenixes, Caduceus and Zombies

[TeslaTornado]

"I say we do the first floor first, then send the elevator up to the second floor loaded with whatever explosives we can scrounge up. Then we follow the lift car up the cables, climb up and go straight into the entry." Vincent suggested.

 

[zephyrite]

Jim considered, then pressed the first floor button and the elevator started to move. "Shall we split up and search when we reach the first floor?"

 

[Themisto]

Crane, who had been silent, was leaning in a corner of the elevator testing the sharpness of one of his knives. "I could really go for some cornbread right now," he mumbled to himself. When he realized that he had just said that out loud, he looked up to a few questioning glances. "What? I like cornbread." He sighed. "Whatever, I agree with Jim. After we take care any initial guards, we should split up to cover the area more effectively." He looked at Mitch, Vincent, and Jim in turn. "Maybe we should split into one big and one small person each, just to balance things."

 

[Luca]

UP TOP...
The lift went "Ding!" at the First Floor. It was fairly quiet behind the doors. When the doors opened, The first thing that the crew saw in front of them is what appeared to be a cubicle-farm styled office. Lots of small cubicles, just over one and three quarters metres tall were stuck together and people could be heard tapping away at computers, scribbling on paper and making small talk by the water fountain. There were three walkways through the cubicles. One through the middle and the others near the walls.

"..." Mitch had to rethink the plan, "I think we should keep low and keep the guns away. We don't want to scare anyone and have them raise the alarm." He flicked the safety on his pistol and holstered it in an underarm holster.

DOWN BELOW...
"Nurse that bump later." The woman told Luca as she kept crawling through the vents with Luca following.
"Okay okay..." He responded, "This is just like one of those Spy movies..."
"Movie, you say?" The woman queried, "You enjoy the movies?"
"Yeah - I always used to go when I was a kid."
"I see. With all of za testosterone and shooting and guns?"
"Mmmhmm."

"Watch anything else?"
"Yeah, a bit of Comedy, sometimes Horror, drama... Y'know..."
"Interesting..." The woman soon found a grate in the vent, the sound of machinery was ringing behind it, "Here we are." She began looking for somewhere where she could open it. Screws, Tabs, anything. Unfortunately she came up fruitless. "Hmm - can't open it."

"Move forward a bit. I'll deal with it!" Luca piped in.
"Not za grenade launcher, please." She moved forwards, "It'll make too much--"
WHAMMM!!
Luca had put the boot in.
"--noise!"
CRUNCH!!
His last kick sent the vent into pieces and provided the way through and he squeezed through. Fortunately this vent was behind cover. Barrels, with various labels including: 'TOXIC', 'RADIOACTIVE' and 'RADIOACTIVELY TOXIC'. Some had a bit of overflow, which was somewhat discomforting, but there was about a metre or so between the barrels and the wall.
"Ohh," Luca gathered what this room was for by looking at the barrels, "Sorting area."

 

[TeslaTornado]

"Alright." Vincent stowed his gauss launcher, flicking the safety as the weapon headed for his back.

"So like I said, I'll go straight through the middle and you guys flank left and right. If you find something, just telepath me or whatever it is the Yamataians do."

 

[zephyrite]

"Sounds like a good plan, but we can't telepath you; only me'n Luca can do that. I'll figure out a way to let you know if something crops up though." Jim said as he stowed his launcher on his back as well, however the stock and muzzle were visible on either side of his body.

"Let's go."

Jim started off walking quickly through the cubicles looking around for any enemies. He scanned each workplace, looking for any item that may be of value to them as he passed.

 

[Luca]

UP TOP...
There weren't any enemies to speak of here in the office, just people working, occasionally glancing about. One of them wheeled out of the cubicle on his chair to Crane, still looking at his screen and typing out a letterhead.
"Could ya get me some coffee while you're up, please?"

This was very contrary to stealth operation procedures Mitch thought to himself as he walked near one of the walls casually and quietly, not drawing much attention. Vincent was somehow keeping a low profile too.

Jim managed to find an unattended cubicle while avoiding the attended ones. Some documents were on a desk with the label: "Missile Course Plot Calculations"

DOWN BELOW...
Luca leant against the back wall behind the barrels and the woman crept through the Vent without a problem.
"Mind if I borrow zat 10x25 millimetre sub machine gun?" She pointed to the gun strapped to Luca's leg, "I'm unarmed."
"Okay," He gave it to her with an extra magazine, "And here's a spare magazine I filched off someone earlier."
"Resourceful." The woman said as she took up the gun, folded the stock out and got ready for a firefight.
"As a hero is!" Luca chuckled. He put away the grenade launcher and drew his still-unused Shotgun. He also kept his Pistol at the ready with a new magazine, just in case.

Luca took a peek over the barrels. 5 men wearing anti-contamination suits were patrolling about, wheeling barrels on carts onto conveyor belts and sorting out the after products of failed experiments - and it all stunk of death and chemicals to high hell. Luca had a feeling that he'd need to visit a decontamination chamber after this. 3 of them were armed with what appeared to be Plasma Pistols.

"5 of them..." Luca put his head back down and retorted the information, "3 armed with Plasma Pistols. They don't seem to have noticed us."
"Let's strike with shock and awe." The lady suggested a strategy, "We have the advantage here."
"Yes, lets." He immediately nipped up and fired a spray of lead pellets at one of the men who had a plasma pistol, who fell to the ground immediately. He pulled the lever that made up the trigger guard to eject the used shell and load a new one in. He had 6 cartridges left.
The woman also nipped up and sprayed another unarmed man with controlled SMG fire, only having to empty a quarter of the magazine to take down the target.

The other two promptly took notice and drew their Plasma Pistols and gave fire at Luca and the Woman, who ducked down to evade the shots, and instead putting holes in the wall.
"Nice shooting!" Luca commented on the woman's shooting.
"Thank you." She replied.

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent continued to make his way through the middle of the room; crouched low and appearing a lot like a lunch cart without a person pushing it.

 

[zephyrite]

Jim tucked the folder inside his jacket, and kept walking as if nothing had happened. Of course, he was not noticed in any case, as no one was paying any attention to him in the first place. Just then, however, he came to a junction where there were 4 people working in a four-cubicle box, each facing a different direction. It would be very difficult to sneak by without attracting a lot of attention, what with the large rifle on his back, completely visible to all who looked. Jim quickly hid behind an unused four-cubicle box and thought of ways to get by without being noticed.

Finally, Jim decided on a solution; he would crawl past the four people, and stealthily observe what they were working on. Getting down on all fours, Jim started to crawl past the people working, but unfortunately, the muzzle of his rifle smacked against the chair of one of the workers, who looked down just in time to see a shoe disappear past the cubicle wall. Jim could hear someone get out of their seat and say, "Oh, very funny Bob, you did the same thing last week."

Another, presumably Bob, answered, "What are you talking about?"

The first returned, "You know what you did, now take this!" Jim could hear the sound of paper hitting someone.

"That's it! I am harassed by someone every single f****ing day. Come over here and fight me like a man why doncha!?"

The sounds of a tussle ensued, while Jim quickly crawled to get a good look at the computer screen.

 

[Themisto]

Across the room, Crane shot a quick questioning glance to the other members of his group at the strange request. However, deciding that it was important not to blow their cover, he nodded to the man working. "Yeah, sure I'll bring you some coffee." He rolled his eyes to himself as he walked away. "How do you like it?" Crane asked, but disappeared around the corner before the man could answer. He had no inentions of getting any coffee for anyone except maybe himself.

 

[Fay]

BACK OVER IN THE DESERT...
Hitori had replied to John, "They seem to be doing well, under the circumstances." The Geshrin shrugged as she followed them along without much to say. Her daggers were at the ready just in case her expertise was needed.

 

[Luca]

BACK OVER IN THE DESERT...
"Hmm. You guys seem to be good at that." John replied as he stroked his chin.
"We got another!" Mel said as she aimed her rifle at a beetle the size of a dinner plate, "Big'un too!"
"Hold on!" John stepped up and drew his .45 pistol, "This one's mine!"
They both opened fire and watched it explode in ichor.
"Great shot!" John gave a high-five to Mel.
"Ah yer not so bad yourself!" she replied.

Seems like Hitori had gotten her fill of information from the two. This place was under control.

AT THE OFFICES...
"Black, two sugars." Replied the office worker to Crane, "And chop chop. We a busy schedule or else the boss is gonna chew us to bits."

The Computer that Jim was looking at was one of a lazy worker. The email client was up with a joke that read like this:

Two Neko girl things were riding on bikes down a cobblestone road.
"I haven't come this way before." One says to the other.
"Yes, It must be the cobblestones."

Looking past the joke though, there was some interesting material relating to "Development Cycle for Z" It had steps on how the development of the virus was going, and it was ready to be printed.

IN THE PROCESSING AREA...
The woman popped back up with the SMG in hand and sprayed down one of the men with a Plasma Pistol, and Luca then jumped up, was almost hit by a bolt of plasma headed his way and blew away one of the guy who tried to shoot him.

The other two put their hands up in shock.
"Mmmkh mmmkh, yff prffen yf poiff!" One of them spoke, his voice was muffled by the gas mask he was wearing.
Luca exchanged glances with the man with the gas mask and the woman, "What? Take off that thing!" He came out from behind cover with his shotgun still raised.
"Forrfh, iff too hafarduff." The man said, "Toffic cemiffalf!"
"What?!" Luca wasn't getting the picture.

"He's saying it's too hazardous, there are toxic chemicals." The woman deciphered.
"Ooohhhh..." Luca slapped himself in the forehead, "No wonder the place smells so bad."
"Geff ouffa herf!" The man said again, "Or elff!"
"Elves?" Luca said, "What are you on about?!"
"GEFF FA FUFF OUF!!" The message was loud and clear on that one.
Luca raised his index finger, "Oh. Okay. Uh - Well, better find a job somewhere else - because this place is up to something nefarious and I'm gonna blast it to the sky."
The man in the mask looked discouraged for a moment.
"There's always the army!" Luca suggested as he made his exit across the room with the woman in tow. They were sneaking down a corridor

"What the hell was that?" The woman inquired.
"Parley." Luca replied, "Talk 'em into submission. Works like a charm when you've outgunned them."
"I take it you learnt that from a movie too?"
"No, actually."
The woman was surprised.
"Oh, wait. Yeah. I did."

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent was still making his way down the middle, occasionally stopping long enough to take a peek inside one of the cubicles. His primary objective was similar to Jim's current "cyber-surfing", he was aiming to find an empty cubicle, sneak inside and hack the computer.

 

[Luca]

((Oh dear I appear to have fallen behind Schedule - and so have you! Wake up guys!!))

UP IN THE OFFICES...
Vincent didn't even have to hack the computer, some other poor bastard was probably up getting coffee and left his workstation open by accident or laziness. Onscreen was a document labelled: "Our Demands" All he did have to do was keep his head down a little.

The document that Jim was looking at printed itself out on a printer near the computer and he snatched it up immediately.
"I bet this is worth a bit..." Jim thought to himself as he pocketed the document.

Mitch was sneaking through quite nicely. Well, he wasn't sneaking, but he was blending in seamlessly with the environs. Keeping and walking towards the kitchen, possibly in search of a drink or to hide in. The elevator at the end of the room was in sight for him. He looked out at the others, and gave them a crick of the neck to tell them to hurry up before someone gets suspicious.

"Hey what are you waiting for man? Get us some coffee!" The man was getting a bit annoyed at Crane, "You and I have a long day ahead, 'kay? You'll need it. It's good for staying awake."

DOWN BELOW...
Just further ahead - Luca found a door with the label "A-3Z Virus Tanks - UNAUTHORISED ACCESS DENIED"
"Oh they were asking for it on 'unauthorised'!" Luca decided to lampshade the situation as he tried to look for a keyhole or something. It seemed to require a keycard with "A-3" clearance, "Hmm - Seems like I need a key."
"As all things do, Mr. Luca. A mad scientist wouldn't leave his work wide open for the world to see." The woman said, she was able to find a way to talk to this man at last, "Does it happen in the movies you watch?"
"Ah, good point. That does happen in the movies, actually."
Then the rustle of hurried footsteps and gruff voices yelling: "That blue bastard and that meddling bitch have escaped! Shoot them on sight!!"

"Get ready!" Luca said as he set his shotgun up on his hip and loaded a new cartridge in and the Woman readied her SMG.
"Get set..." Luca searched for cover, and found the supports near the walls did the job alright, but not greatly. She followed suit with a support on the opposite wall.

 

[Themisto]

Stupid coffee whore, Crane muttered under his breath as he hurried to give the man his coffee. He had always preferred something more 'civilized' as he put it. "In the future, I recommend sriracha squid tea," Crane told the worker as he hastened after Mitch toward the kitchen, frowning. Grumpy people demanding things, especially something as impure as coffee, always made him mad.

 

[Luca]

IN THE OFFICES...
"Yeah whatever, thanks pally." The guy said as he downed the coffee in one go. He wiped his mouth, picked up a folder and passed it to Crane, all without looking, "Could ya pass this to the head office? They're on the 5th floor. The password for the elevator to go there is 5146 and the Hash key twice. Remember that." He continued banging away at his work.

Jim quickly made his way out of the office cell and towards the back wall, where the elevators were, sending this message to Crane and Vincent: "Guys, I think we've got what we want. I found something great - hurry on to the back elevator!"

Mitch was already leaning against the wall, waiting for everyone else.

DOWN BELOW...
"GO GET 'EM!!" Luca and the Woman had burst from their cover and opened fire on the guards rushing towards them. There was a group of about 3, headed by this one massive fellow wearing a Super Demon power armour and armed with something that looked bigger and meaner than the combat shotguns the other guards had. Both parties caught each other by surprise.

Luca fired first, sending a spray of lead pellets towards one unlucky guard, getting most of them in the chest and right arm, knocking him backwards sprawled onto the ground and sending his shotgun into the air.
The ID-SOL in the armour with the big gun spoke up: "Neither of you shall survive!!" That big gun appeared to be a gatling gun of some sort, and the barrels were starting to rotate in Luca's general direction.
"TAKE COVER!!" Luca and the woman immediately hid behind the columns. The shots seemed to melt through the column, and saw that white/green streams were streaking past him.
Holy shit, is that a Gatling NSP?! Luca recalled the colour of the NSP blasts from his Goban days.
"That's an Aether Gatling Rifle!" The woman screamed over the noise of the blasts heading Luca's way, "Must've been a black market purchase!"
"Yeah! No kidding!" Luca replied as he saw his cover about to wear thin, when the man with the gatling gun stopped firing. "Run, Now!"
"And that's just on easy mode..." The hulking guard with the gatling gun scowled with a twisted smile, "Shame I can't get the real deal to work, or both of you would be dust. Run while you can - you two can't hide from my weapon!" He then let forth a burst of frenzied laughter.

He then signalled to the other guards that he had this under control and they scattered.
"So how do you suppose we deal with za big lug and his krashko?" The woman asked Luca as he and she ran down the halls.
"I dunno! Cover seems to be useless!" Luca replied as he tried to think of a strategy, making a left turn towards 'Storeroom 2 and Explosives Range'.
"I zaw that! You're lucky you've still got your torso intact from that barrage!"
They rushed into what appeared to be an empty storeroom and slammed the door behind them. There was barely anything in there, not a lot of cover, but lots of space. Amongst the few boxes, there appeared to be one labelled '40mm Plasma Grenades. Lorath Type'
Luca then smiled. He had something to compete with.

 

[Themisto]

"Excellent," Crane said as he walked away from the man and toward the elevator. On his way, he grabbed a pen off someone's desk and quickly scribbled 'head office, 5th floor, 5146 + 2 hash key' on the folder. He held it up as he approached his companions. "You guys might want to take a look at this, too."

 

[TeslaTornado]

Vincent sighed, then took out his datapad and a USB, and dumped most of the computer's contents onto it. When he completed his side-mission, he snuck out of the cubicle and headed back to the elevator bank at the far side of the room.

"So, what did everyone else turn up?" Vincent inquired as he arrived back at the elevators.

 

[Luca]

IN THE OFFICES...
Mitch opened up the lift and escorted the three amigos inside, then shut the door behind them. There was a keypad with numbers 1 to 9 and 0 with a [#] sign and an ampersand.

"Vince, Mitch, I have this..." Jim held out his Document, titled 'The Development Cycle for Z', "Should be useful."
Mitch nodded, "Hmm. Always good to blackmail with."
Vincent put forth what he found, the 'Our Demands' Document on the USB stick.
"Very nice." Mitch admired the handiwork of the two.
The document Crane was holding had the password for the Head Office up top, and Mitch took a look at it.
"A password?" Mitch was impressed with everyone's collaborative efforts so far, "Great work guys." He then spoke aside to Crane, "How'd you find this, anyway?"

 

[zephyrite]

Jim looked sidelong at crane. Since when did this guy acquire stealth? He seems to straightforeward for that... Well, he did get exactly what we need!

"Alright, it seems like we have everything, no?" Jim said, clapping his hands together. "So what's the plan."