RP: Taking It Back [Phase II-A] Arming the Pack

Rennik was furious with the whole lot of them. With apparent disgust, he turned away from all of them and stalked off, quickly disappearing before anyone noticed his absence.

As Rennik made his way out of the area, he soon found himself face-to-face with Alex, who was dressed keenly in a white surgical coat, clutching in one hand an unattached cybernetic limb. Alex gave him a silent acknowledgement by placing his other hand on Rennik's shoulder. There was no change in his expression during the gesture, making the whole thing seem somehow robotic.

"You've got important business with us today." Was all Alex said before stepping around the man and continuing towards the now dissolving team. He sat silently just out of sight with his hands behind his back for just a brief moment. Then, with a casual air about him, he withdrew his HHG and unloaded a single round into the smooth concrete. The fierce crack echoed through the harbor and dust flew up into the morning sunlight. There was no change in his expression during this gesture, raising further suspicions in regards to Alex's Nepleslianess(Humanity?).

His face drilled hard into Lucas, then Dimitri, then finally Chandler. His eye took some pictures for posterity.

Even though it seemed fairly obvious he knew the answer, Alex a
asked anyway with the soft-spoken voice of a protest musician. "What seems to be taking so long to finish the briefing?"

By now Dimitri was far off towards the submarine, standing near the ledge to the water. He looked over at Alex, pointed at Chandler, and continued to stare into the water, his arms crossing over his chest, while his left hand continued to carry the cigarette in his index and middle fingers.

Not much to say. The answer was pretty clear: what was a little girl doing among a bunch of adults?

Chandler pointed at himself, really seeing that there wasn't much of a way to solve this besides owning up. "Got annoyed," he said simply. He used his free hand to withdraw one of his UCKs from within his coat and check the blades for signs of wear, stains, anything. There wasn't anything, of course, Chandler maintained the knives like they were his nonexistant children.

Alex nodded along with Chandler's response as if he were hearing a child admit that it'd knocked over the cookie jar. There was a sort of low sound of acknowledgement in his throat.

"There's a standard procedure for events such as this amongst a team of specialists, and I'm sure you'll recognize it." Alex began. Nearby, Lucas sighed with the force of a yawning horse. It was another one of those 'Alex Lectures'. Alex went about plucking the expended shell from his HHG with the loose prosthesis crooked under an elbow as he continued his speech. "The briefing continues from the point in which it was interrupted and the operations goes along as planned. Considering that all of the parties involved are typically professionals, they are also typically able to complete their objectives without fail. After the operation is complete and the team arrives back to their insertion area, the unruly members of the team meet with an executive officer for potential re-assignment in the case of a lasting dispute."

The new bullet slid into the cylinder and Alex slammed the gun shut with a flick of his wrist before holstering it. His empty glare never left Chandler as he spoke, although his implant seemed to wander idly, as if it were the bored one. After a moment, Alex broke his stare in favor of the prosthesis now clutched again in his hands. His mind wandered over to Ally in the med-bay, currently being sedated by a team of medics while Doctor Phillips cleaned and prepped the equipment needed for the eminent Cyberplasty.

"I like procedures." Alex said, toying with the index finger on the prosthetic arm.

Archie maintained his silence during the scene, anything else would have been undignified. Getting into the squabbles of such rabble, no place for a gentleman. He watched as Alex restored order “I'd swear that man operated on his own eye, and only used the surgeon for consultation.” he muttered in appreciation.

“Since La Bone Princess Pussy seems to know his way around, perhaps he would be more use as part of the prisoner ruse. I shall deal with the guards tower myself if need be.” He said louder, trying to keep the meeting on track now that it didn't seem to be breaking down into senseless bickering. He used the name Rennik had provided since neither had bothered swapping pleasantries yet.

"No" Rennik said angrily, stomping back over to the group.
"If you had been listening at all, which I very much doubt" he added, glaring at Chandler and Dmitri "you will remember me very specifically saying that there are no windows facing the street. That means that one of us" he said, looking again to Archie "will have to take out the ground level guards and enemies while the other takes out the Tower guards and then makes a break for the Tower itself in order to open the Prison pen"
He took a deep breath; he was very clearly upset.
"And I've already said I'd do that. I know exactly where that emergency console is"

Chrys looked at Rennik with a small frown. "You know Twitchy, we will be down there. One of us will be on the tower much faster then you would. And I bet none of us is a dumb sod. We can push a buttons you know." She said with cold voice.

"Anyway, if they won't frisk us or have some super cool security sensors then everyone of us could take a pistol with him. It will be easier for us to reach the armory that way." She added for others.

"Lucas" Alex called, waving the cybernetic arm towards the ID-Sol, who was now sitting in the buggy with his face buried in his hands, "Please continue the briefing, as everybody has their questions I'm sure. I'll be in the med-bay. Nobody will need me."

Having said his piece, Alex made his way back towards the submarine's gangway, his usual look still plastered across his face. One of the crew members had come out to smoke, and Alex walked past the man with a silent nod of acknowledgement. Lucas re-took his position at the head of the group and unfurled the map again with a sigh. The morning chill was fading to give way for the more humid mid-morning heat. In the distance, a muffled explosion could be heard, a sign of Paragon's ongoing presence in the city.

Lucas tried to get everything back on track. "Now, uh, there will be weapons in the truck, and if our snipers do their job, there won't be any reason to use them until after we get in. Rennik, you should stay on the roof with Archie until after the guards are taken out. We'll need the guards at the gate to get us in, 'cuz they've changed the access codes. After we're in, and the guards at the tower are down, you guys can neutralize the gate guards and move in. You'll be helpful for our attack on the precinct building."

Lucas switched out the map for another long sheet with pictures of the armory entrance and the gate release. They both looked like simple electronic access devices. A keypad for the armory, a proximity reader with a pair of DAC keys for the prisoner yard.

"These will be our only true obstacles in this instance. Obviously, we don't have the new codes the NMX are using, so we'll have to crack it. I've got some basic cracking and cryptanalysis flashed into my brain from birth and these are old systems, so I figure we got good chances with the keypad. Alex has provided a pair of 'smart' keys for the proximity reader. He'll program them to open the door when we get close. As soon as the door opens, everybody will be free to get their weapons from under the seats. We'll split off into two groups: Babsie, and Chandler will head into the yard and round up the prisoners while Chrys, Dimitri, and Me go crack open the armory. Babsie and Chandler, once you get as many healthy battle-ready officers as you can gather, bring them all to the armory and we'll all load up for a main assault. I'll set up fireteams and make a battle-plan when I see how many men we've got. Anybody got any questions?"

Chrys started being a little nervous. This was taking too long. It stopped being proper briefing ten minutes ago. One of the team-mates even left. No discipline at all. Even she knew that and she was just girl raised on street. "Okay I got this, I am will Lucas. No problems. Lucas if you will be posing as enemy, then hide more guns on your person. They would never frisk you." She said, unholstering her Silver Special and bayonet giving them to Lucas. "Be careful with them, those are my most valued friends." She said as she was letting him watch over them. "Guess I will let my shotgun stay home for the evening." She said and smiled. She also hoped there will be some interesting guns in the armory. Nepleslian police station could have bazooka or something. It is Nepleslia after all.

"Confirmed," Chandler said, "I have no further questions."

The ex-operative made one final check of his pistols, then raised his hand for a question. "I presume you'll want me to leave my equipment here?" He said, pointing to his pistols, his knives and the hardcase leaning against his ankles. "If we are to attempt an incognito approach, carrying an anti-materiel rifle in a hardcase purpose built to hold an anti-materiel rifle, along with several other weapons, would be inadvisable."

"It's cool." Lucas replied, waving to the crew member smoking on the deck. "Just give it to that guy when he gets around here, and he'll lock it up in the armory."

Lucas focused back on Chrys. "Now, as for you, don't worry about it so much. We'll keep our weapons under our seats. They'll be right next to you when I uncuff you." The lumbering ID-Sol gave an easy smile Chrys' way as he stowed his own pistol under the driver's seat in favor for one of the NMX sidearms. He took one last look at himself in the side mirror and tried to contort his face into the angry facade worn by the brown-haired ID-Sols from the day before. It didn't work too well. With a sigh, Lucas pulled himself into the driver's seat and sprayed on a thin layer of temporary hair-dye to complete the look.

With everything taken care of, Lucas turned in place to the small crowd behind him and said, "Alright boys and girls, time to load up in the club van. We're going on a field trip to see a real-live police station!"

------------

[Below Decks, Medbay]

Alex watched Lucas and the others pull away on a small volumetric display while washing his hands for the procedure. He let loose a small sigh before turning back to the table. There, lying before him, was the unconscious form of Alexis, swathed in a hypo-allergenic and perfectly sanitary blue material all the way up to the offending shoulder. Undressed, the wound wasn't pretty to look at. Caked and dried blood met with hastily applied sutures and purplish-blue skin. The doctor's assistants had done their best to clean the wound before Doctor Phillips stopped them.

"You don't have to clean it, boys," The doctor lectured them, firmly pulling their gloved hands away from Alexis' arm, "It's not going to get infected and spread over past her shoulder while we're cutting it off. Clean the amputation area instead."

And so, the orderlies went about disinfecting a three-inch thick band around Ally's shoulder, carefully shaving the pit of her arm, and bracing the collarbone against the impending bone-saw. Meanwhile, the doctor himself sharpened the bone-saw and prepared the second stage of anesthesia. Alex spent the entire ordeal watching the implants float about in their chemical bath. Out of boredom, his eye zoomed in and examined the details in the brushed metal of the arm, the articulation in the joints. His face started to burn right next to the implant, again.

-------

[Upper-West Side Funky City, 3382nd Precinct of the Nepleslian Police]

After a roughly thirty-minute drive through sparsely populated streets, the buggy entered a ghostly quiet part of town. All the shops were closed, all the people gone. The only sound was the muffled distant explosions and gunfire from nearby Paragon engagements. Tumbletrash skittered across the empty streets as the buggy made its way between the buildings and slithered to an easy stop in the alleyway previously listed on the map. The alleyway was dark, and wet. At one end sat a rusted, dilapidated stairwell next to a dumpster which oddly enough didn't smell of any horrible odor.

The headlights of the buggy cast a harsh light on these features as it moved into the narrow alleyway. White, wavery reflections formed on the water. There was no sign that they'd been noticed. Lucas dismounted and did a final run-down of everyone, just to make sure they were all there.

"Alright," he whispered, despite them still being nearly a block away from the police station, "Marksmen, get up those stairs and in the building. Everybody else line up in front of me for your cuffs."

Chrys walked down to the Lucas and extended both her hands grinning. "Be gentle," she paused. "This is my first time," was end of the joke as she was geting cuffed.

Dimitri dropped the cigarette he had been smoking. Second one since this morning's little outburst. He stomped on it and stood up, lining up behind Chrys with a bit of a wide grin on his face; as if he was remembering a joke, or thinking up a new one. Although he thought the plan wasn't going to work, he went along with it and awaited to get handcuffed.

Lucas smiled along with Chrys and gently cuffed her, whispering softly in her ear, "You can't tell anyone, but it's my first time too."

There was a sort of bashful glint in his eye as his massive hands slipped the cuffs around her wrist. Then came Dimitri's turn. Dimitri's expression wiped the smile right of of Lucas' face.

"Hey, pal," He asked while going down for the next pair of cuffs. "What's so funny, eh?"

------

[Back in the Med-bay...]

Thirty minutes after Lucas and the gang set off for the prison, the delicate part of the surgery was over. A perfect, clean cut had severed Alexis from her arm at the shoulder. Thanks to the use of well-practiced Nepleslian cybernetic technology, there wasn't much blood... on the table, anyhow. The floor was practically covered in the stuff, and so to was the Doctor's labcoat.

Alex, on the other hand, was a clean as one could be in a room nearly flooded with blood. His one aesthetic flaw was the small tube connecting him to a dripping bag over Alexis, and down into her veins through an IV. In front of him, on the table next to his patient, was the prosthesis itself. Alex had already attached it to the implant in Alexis' shoulder, and was fiddling with some settings under a maintenance panel on her new forearm.

The doctor came in alongside him to watch his work while the orderlies made efforts to mop up the blood around them.

"Doctor," Alex said, not looking away from his work, "Administer the local anesthesia, along with some adrenaline. She must be conscious and alert for this next part. It's integral that we map the neurons before the wound heals too much."

The doctor huffed. He already knew about this stuff, and didn't appreciate the lecture. Nonetheless, he kept his professional air and made quick for the requested drugs, injecting them into the IV with Alex's blood.

One of the orderlies spoke up on this matter.

"Are you sure you can do that kind of math while you're giving a blood transfusion? Won't you be a little woozy?"

Alex cut back, "Certainly. I am a superior mathematician. Now, be quiet so that Alexis can focus on my words when she awakens. Otherwise, you'll be the woozy one."

The doctor smiled to himself as he worked and listened to Alex threaten the orderlies. He thought for just a moment about how certain threats sounded especially sincere when there was no emotion behind them.

Then, the good doctor shot in the adrenaline.

Tha-thump.

Tha-thump.

The hospital is white; very white. She remembers that. She is in a bed, looking up at a light, eyes wet with tears. Her father is there, in uniform, but her mother is away at work. Otherwise she would be here, too.

"It's going to be alright," he says, holding onto the girl's hand. "Don't worry."

She has the unpleasant sensation of drowning; of being underwater, with no hope of air, and no way to move her body. Her mind rebels against the prospect. She gasps, drawing in air, sucking it in hard, but her lungs feel leaden and her chest hurts. It feels, suddenly, as if she is going to be sick.



Alexis blinked. She blinked again, and managed to tilt her head and focus on the person beside the bed, trying to lift her hand, to reach his coat. She couldn't, though; something was wrong with her arm, and the other felt sluggish and wouldn't move, either. The world was a blur.

"Dad?" Alexis whispered, trying to make sense of the scene in front of her. "Don't go."

"The adrenaline is taking effect." The doctor stated dramatically, an evening drama tone to his voice. Alex rolled his organic eye and continued making adjustments to the arm. The doctor leaned in closer, past Alex.

"We're not going anywhere, sweety." He said. Melodrama.

Alex sighed. "Do not lie to her, doctor."

"She's just a child! She wants her father!" The doctor whispered back harshly.

"I know." Alex said, "But I think she will be fine without him for the moment. I never knew my parents and I developed quite well."

The doctor grimaced in response, almost snarling, "You have the bedside manner of a wet sponge!"

Alex shrugged, flipping switches to activate rotors inside the arm. "When applied in the proper place, with the accurate amount of water, a sponge is far more relaxing than emotional stimulus." Alex switched gears to focus on Ally. "Alexis. We need you to think right now. You are almost finished. Can you answer some questions for me?"

-----

[Prison Yard, three minutes before Lucas and company arrive...]

"The squids are pretty much all sleeping, sir, they won't know what hit them."

A young officer was standing next to a slightly older Leutenant holding a hand-drawn map with a battle plan. They were situated inside of a small tent, obviously set up in haste. In the center of the polyester room was a table, which a few more young officers were gathered around in dusty uniforms.The Leutenant surveyed his group before continuing. "We're just waiting for the Cheif Inspector to get here from the other units and tell us if they're ready."

As if summoned the tent flap was pushed aside as a their man entered, he was tall, dark-haired with blues. His coat screamed authority in a way that didn't need to be state and a pair of black leather gloves covered his hands. Some of the younger officers soluted. "Gents." He greeted the room roughly, surveying it slowly.

"Sir." The leutenant spoke, laying down the crudely-drawn map on the table between them. "What's going on in the other buildings? Has Sarge given us anything to go on, out here?"

"He says it's the most daft plan he's ever heard but it's the only chance of any of us getting out of this alive, and frankly I quite agree with him." Said the Chief Inspector as he approached the map.

"Do you think we can get everyone out in the yard in the next five minutes? I haven't seen the situation in the triage, yet." The leutenant produced a pack of cigarettes and withdrew one for himself before offering one to the Inspector.

The Chief accepted the cigarette and brought out his own lighter, it was located where the nail of his thumb would be, a specially cut hole in the glove accomodating it. The "nail" glowed red after a few seconds and the chief easily lit his before offering it to the helpful leiutenant who partook gladly of the smoldering thumbnail to light his own cigarette. Pleastantries done, the lighter was shaken to try and bleed off some of the excessive head, quickly loosing its glow after a few seconds.

"I'm not sure you cold call that triage so much as a butchers shop, any sods in there aren't likely to be coming out by themselves any time soon."

"Damn." The other man sighed, smoke wisping out of his nose, "We'll just have to leave a couple of guys back there to look after them until we can bring back help. Well, if there's nothing else, I think we can bring everyone together in the yard with some of those 'care-packages' we've been getting and be ready to jump ship in less than ten minutes."

"They'll be ready." the chief grunted in an exhale of smoked, "How do we make them come in so we can bust our way out?"

"I got a marksman here." The leutenant replied, gesturing to the young officer next to him. "One of our packages came with a rifle, and he's fairly certain he can take out the guys in the guard tower. After that, we just gotta keep hittin' the walls until they come in to shut us up."

"No, to contain us all they'd have to do is not open the door. You'll need something that'll make them want to come in, then we strike." At the word strike one of the leather gloved bumped into its opposite and squeezed with that rubbing leather sound.

"You got somethin' in mind, Cheif?"

"I've got a few heads around here I've been meaning to take a swing at. I think it's about I settle the score and make our squidy friends walk in to keep the peace."

The lietenant brokered a confident smile among the Cheif and then the younger officers, who returned weaker, more nervous smiles. Then, he outstretched a single calloused hand to the Cheif, smile still plastered strong on his face. "It's good to see some interdepartmental teamwork around here, Cheif."

"Just business as usual far as I'm concerned."

Alexis closed her eyes again.

He is there, by the bedside, but the voice isn't his; Alexis tries to reach for his hand again, but it doesn't work. She is growing steadily more lucid. She knows this even though she crested the surface, and with her eyes closed she can almost see the last threads of her dream. It burns away, though. Too bright. She tightens her eyelids, shutting them harder against the lights, moving her head to the side as she angles away from the doctors. Her arm is broken; shattered like glass. It doesn't help to think about it.

Their words come from somewhere far away as the vision fades. She wonders where her father is, but already knows.

"Yes." Her blue eyes flutter open, hardly seeing.

Alex leaned in closer to Ally, his hands firmly grasping the Durandium prosthesis on the bed beside her.

"We shall start with an easy one: When you open a bottle, do you turn the cap to the left or the right?" he asked softly, cybernetic eye zooming in on the rotors in the arm.