"Seeing as I just got it, not really. Let me see if I can..." Tatyana said before she brought her guide up to look through. "That, is just too porn..." She sighed before taking a moment longer. "Ah, we actually we did get a fair amount of useful information.. I also got a code that will get us access to the majority of the rooms. He also had a meetup with a man named Carmichel to get them transport up there. Shall we go meet with him instead?"
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She finally spit out hte bubblegum she was working on frsutration about something clear in her features... or the way she spat. She went to working on a fresh peice of the newly bought gum. her scowl evident.
"I still think we ought to murder the dwarf at least nasty little maggot."
She grumbled took a deep breath and finally nodded to Abiss.
"Lets move people The queen is right times ticking... lets find this carmichael guy and use their ride..."
the wind howls loudly in the cold night, its chill talons piercing fabric and armor alike. Large, fat snow flakes, as big as a troll's thumb, fly through the air, slapping into your faces with wet effect, forcing you to squint.
below the howl you hear the hum of electric motors. You step through the thick, wet snow and walk around the corner of the ticket building, and see four snowmobiles.... and a massive pick up truck!
Pretty lady! need ride! give quick ride home! one man asks loudly with a thick Indian accent.
Sir! Sir! you ride! i take! another man, similar accent asks.
Si! Si! Here! here! another man, this time with a south american accent cuts in.
A tall man, wrapped in a fur lined trench coat leans against the massive pick up truck. A large hat sits easily upon his brow, immune to the wind gusts and attempts to displace it. A fat cigar glows a ruddy red as the man puffs on it.
Who's Carmichel? tatyana yells over to be heard.
immediately the three foreigners frown, one of them glancing at the man in the coat. he is one says, his accent gone.
bloody hell. the latin man says in a strange british accent.
The bar? The third asks, to which the others nod.
they promptly hop on their snowrides and zip away down the snow-covered road.
The man in the coat steps forward and lowers his cigar from his lips.
sorry doll. Unless your willing to give me some horizontal persuasion, or youre a dwarf with a massive growth spurt, im taken.
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The elven mage sniffed.... the kind of sniff that she she was highly annoyed.
"Oh dear we will leave you horizontal alright. Like you Dwarven friend, his troll friend. "
She concentrated just enough to let her hands both ignite into flame the precurser to the stream of fire she was about to spew forth.
"I suggust you apologize to the lady who had the unfortunate duty to dig through the dwarves brain which is how we found you name... and then you will transport us instead... Is that acceptible or shall we see if the fish in the water enjoy barbequed human?"
Tatyana gave the man a slightly bored look, she didn't like talking to people... and if she hadn't been the one to find the agreement between the dwarf and this Carmichel, she would not have continued it. "Your dwarf not be coming." Tatyana stated bluntly as she placed her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "And yes, I am very sure of that. I ensured that." She simply added.
"Gnossi it is okay, why he snaps at chicken bones with a steak before him is his own foolishness." Tatyana said with a small chuckle at her self deprecating humor. But she is correct, dwarf gone, as such you now are not taken. My party needs to get to where the dwarf needed to go." She explained as she looked back to the her group. "So, will you talk proper business? Politely."
Warren looks at Carmichel and shakes his head, "I wouldn't piss those two ladies off any more than they already are. Their fuses are real short after what the dwarf pulled on the boat. He's going to be unconscious for a while and his troll friend isn't ever going to wake up. They are in a homicidal mood right now."
Wraith laughs nervously.
Hey, at least you're still working! he states in a conceding, quasi-empathetic tone.
Why don't we just be on our way now?
The man in the coat shrugs at Gnoss' comment. Dwarf isnt my friend. nor is his troll companion. I was hired to drive them to a spot, a spot thatdve been told to me when the dwarf was in the truck with me.
he puffs some more
though, from the sound of it, i am now available for service.
Abiss snaps!
he rushes forward rapidly and body checks the man into the side of his truck.
Take us to Bainbridge Manor now! he yells loudly at the fallen man
Carmichel pushes himself out of the deep, wet snow.
alright alright! sheesh. he brushes off his arms and chest. but as you can tell, it only seats 2 up front. and i have a soft spot for females, so they get to ride up front. With me. where its warm.
he thumbs his finger over his shoulder to the bed of the pickup. the rest of you can climb in there, or walk. I dont care. but im leaving now!
Carmichel relights his cigar and walks around the front of his truck and climbs in.
Tatyana reached out and grabbed Abiss's arm at the elbow giving a small shake of her head. "Thank you, but that was a bit much." Her tone even, but also worried for his actions. Then she slipped off her oversized jacket and held it out to him. "I'll be warm enough. Try and keep warm in the back ya?"
Warren jumps up in the back of the truck. He says to the others "I know it's not usually a good idea but the closer we are to each other the warmer we will be."
Again, Manjit looks with disappointment at Abiss. He shakes his head and moves towards the fallen man.
"He is a little headstrong...but the last people we dealt with did try to negotiate with a hand grenade, so you can understand his impatience. Now come, take us to this place the dwarf was travelling and we will make it worth your time."
Wraith sighs deeply.
The back of an open truck... in a snowstorm.
He hops in.
I will need thawing afterwards!
With everyone loaded up into the truck (inside and out), the truck roars to life. And roar it does! two massive smoke stacks stick out of the bed of the truck, and an ugly black smoke belches out from the tops. a deep guttural roar comes from the engine, and with a loud bang! it lurches forward in the deep snow.
Hey, sorry about that. Had to keep my cover. He throws the truck into gear and it lurches forward, chewing slowly through the snow.
Name's Ragon. Captain Ragon out of Fort Lewis. I was told to meet a group of runners coming out of seattle by way of the ferry. Was told it was a dwarf. The way you handled the pervert told me the lot of you were pros, more so than him and his group.
he shifts gears, picking up more speed as he plows through deep snow and snow drifts.
Im the comms expert from fort lewis. My job was to make sure that, in this weather, the signal is stable to ensure that the Hive, once its connected with the matrix again, that the signal is able to best connect. Rest of my team, they disappeared a couple hours ago. I dont know how. But they dropped comms. I was going to go look for them, but i was radioed and told to wait for reinforcements. i thought it was going to be another crew out of fort lewis, but i was wrong.
he looks casually at gnoss and Tatyana not that im complaining.
the roar of the diesel denies any attempt to talk. the wind, the cold, all of it, within one minute on the snowcovered road, you feel like you have underdressed for this. as if you could have accounted for riding in the back of early 2000s truck ride.
Manjit smiles as Wraith complains of the cold. He leans close to the man and speaks right into his ear.
"Back in Napal, this would be a mild spring storm...it is when it is too cold to snow that the problems begin!"
The ex-soldier hunkers down in the bed of the truck, making himself comfortable as the snow continues to fall.
he gently maneuvers around a stuck electric car.
damn amateurs. those cars were never made to handle weather like this. he clicks his tongue in exasperation.
I was tasked with setting up base camp, of reporting progress to Umbrella, and coordinating with the team as they entered into the mansion. They split up, and secured the large mans. after that, went into the large barn which housed the service entrance to the Hive, and after that, they were lost.
the wind whips past you, cutting deep into your body. the chill instantly hits you hard, making life miserable. the heavy rumble of diesel engine fills your ears and your mind, blasting out thought and feeling, only to be replaced with heavy machinery and coldness.
Warren shivers in the cold and gets as close as he can to the others.
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SHe growled at the soldier.
"Some sort of magical defense system a curse no doubt. Shamenistic magic.... not my speciality but Ive read a book or two. I will do what i can to minimize the effect. Even with the storm picking anything up on your deck yet from this facility Queen?
Alright. it is just up there. Im going to pull off and stop at my command tent. you'll have to approach on foot. dont worry, its not that long. just about a mile... in deep snow.
he makes a turn and you see a tall black tent set up amongst some trees.
the roar of the engine suddenly increases, and a moment later a heavy blast of snow blows over the top of the truck and lays thick upon your exposed body, chilling you worse.
You begin to shake the cold whiteness off of your clothes when again, more of the heavy snow dumps on you over the top of the truck.
You throw your head back to yell in frustration and are, once again, another gift of snow covers you and the bed of the truck.
the engine roars once more and then finally it shuts off, startling you with the silence. a door opens. We're here. hehehehe look at you all! like moving snowmen the man giggles
you get out of the truck, and look around. far off in the distance to the north (so says the commlinks), you see the faint hue of lights.
I'm going to kill the next person who wishes for a snow day... Wraith grouses as he freezes in the bed of the truck.
he jumps out of the truck bed, and after glaring at the driver immediately and begins doing jumping jacks to warm up his body.
Keep moving, keep moving.
Abĭss had not liked how things had turned, even before reaching their actual destination. His thoughts drifted to what he might do to that Johnson should he ever meet him again or if he could get Taty to find him. While he did not empathize with the gals due to lacking empathy as of late, he did note their displeasure and would have dispatched the Dwarf had they asked. It was not that he did not understand the value of life, but it was not much different to him than turning off a machine. He vaguely remembered when it meant a lot more to him but could no longer truly understand why. He had basically burned that out of his brain and now he was serving the penance for his vanity and indulgences that continued to haunt his every waking hour.
After just having more than he would care to take on before the mission and body checking the driver, he nodded to Taty's comment and then with a slightly raised eyebrow accepted her treasured jacket. "I will return this." He then lends a hand to both Taty and Gnossi into the truck before donning the jacket and joining the others in the back of the truck. The ride was cold, but it supplied a sensation that at least registered and reminded him that he was still a living being, even though he did not really feel much like one. Still he hunkered down to minimize exposure and retain body heat. Still his suit did cover nearly his entire body, even though it did not protect all that much from the cold, so the added jacket was a good thing or he might have been a bit worse off than he would have otherwise been.
Upon final arrival, he exits the rear of the truck and like Wraith does some larger muscle movements to help augment the smaller constant flexing movements he had done to help keep his body temperature up. He then removes the jacket and helps Taty slip it back on as she was going to need it more than he. He then looked at the two ladies and asked, "So where to next, I do not think staying out in the cold for too long would be a good idea for any of us."
Manjit helps the others get out of the vehicle. Being from a cold climate, the weather did not bother him as much as the others.
"Yes, you best get into shelter and warm up."
The Napalese man starts to break a path through the snow towards the distant lights.
Warrens jumps off the truck and shivers. Snow continues to fall off his body for a minute. When he finishes he runs around the truck a few times and says "Let's go." as he passes the group.
Abĭss watched as a couple of the others headed off, but he waited on the ladies to perhaps impart information and/or direction as they had been in the cab with the driver and there being a tent here it appeared that maybe the driver had been a bit more than a driver, either that or they should probably scour the tent for potential information and/or supplies that might prove to be useful. Granted he did understand they were under a time crunch but all that meant was there was going to be more than one way to die. That final thought brought a slight smile to his lips.
Tatyana gladly accepted her jacket back from Abĭss with a small smile. "I hope it helped a bit" She said with a nod.
However then she looked at the deep snow and sighed. 'I will slow everyone down...' She realized, due to not only her stature but also the amount of documents she still needed to go through.
"The driver said that his group is in there." Tatyana told the others as they started off. "Two of his group knew about magic and said something was wrong with the magic in there."
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"Which way is the entrance?"
She called to the driver through the wind. She refused to wrap her arms around herself she could only imagine how cold the boys must be. it was best to get inside as soon as possible. She drew out her bow knocking an wrrow only partially shaking as the wind whipped through her jacket like she wasnt wearing anything.
Wraith points to the North at the faint lights in the distance.
That way. Let's start walking.
He tightens his trench coat around his body and rubs his hands together for warmth as they start.
Taking his time, Manjit ensures he breaks a path through the snow for the others to follow. The walk reminds him of his youth, when he would walk to the market during the winter. The darkness and the cold bring him back to his home, and his hopes to return someday.
the driver gets out of the truck and leads you all to a large snow drift next to a large pine tree. You blink in surprise as he pulls back part of the drift, and suddenly you see the shape of a camouflaged tent appear before your eyes.
Please, enter. The driver yells above the howl of the wind.
Stepping inside, warmth hits your face and limbs like a heavy pillow. it scorches your features, and warms your lungs as you inhale deeply. a large space heater runs in the corner, pulsating with warmth and orange light.
upon the tents wall you see monitors, 12 of them in all. All but three of them show flicking images of various locations within a building. One of the monitors shows strange, wavy lines that cycle at a frequent rhythm. A blueprint is shown on the second to last monitor. and finally, on the last, 11 images with names, ranks, and other info are highlighted red, while one remains lit green. The image upon it is the same as the man standing before you.
Ooooooh... Wraith immediately basks in the warmth.
he starts to peruse the monitors around him, but he's probably not going to be the one to interpret them correctly.
Even though he was born in the cold, the warmth of the tent draws a slight sigh of contentment from the gurkha.
"Well, it looks like you still have one member somewhere in there. What is the intel so far?"
"Manjit, than one left is him." Tatyana stated as she moved past the man to sit down and get into the information she still had left to go through.
that's me the man says. First. I am captain Ragon out from fort lewis. Im in charge of the teams that got sent in. I apologize for the theatrics at the dock. This is a black tier mission, and no one needs to know about it.
he waves his hand over the monitors and various crate stacked with wires rolled out every where. I had comms when the team went into the bainbridge manor. they had cleared the mansion before going to the Wheel house.
his eyes grow distant, and a moment later, a trid flares to life on a desk. pale blue light projects a three dimensional drawing up into the air. It shimmers and flickers slightly, but the lines are crisp. it shows a top down image of a chunk of land.
we are here a red dot appears on the land, just north of the demarcation line. Bainbridge manor is here a green outline appears, providing a large structure on the display. the image flickers again, showing a third structure off to the left (looking down upon) of the mansion, marked out in yellow. the wheel house. Orange dots and outlines appear. Small, barely several pixels wide. The orange dots and small squares are the other structures on the property. the pool house, the pool itself, the stairs to the beach. the boat launch, jet ski house. the dock. each of the three outdoor fire pits. the sex swing. he points at a single orange dot close to the shoreline to the upper right of the mansion.
he waves his hand, and all the unique structures change colors to solid blue. 11 Red dots appear on the vid, surrounding the large red dot where you all stand.
this is the team. this tracked their movements within the house. Ragon says professionaly.
the dots start to move, heading straight for the mansion, leaving behind a thin red line connecting them to the large red. the top down view shifts, zooming in on the mansion. inside the structure, the 11 dots split up, and spread out throughout the house. they pause in each room, flowing from room to room.
finally, they all congregate at the rear of the house, in what looks to be a massive kitchen. six dots stay in the kitchen while 5 others across the yard.
they head to the wheel house
the zoom changes, zooming out slightly. five dots flow to another larger structure in the back of the property. they move in overwatch, one moves up, stops, another comes forward. they leapfrog from point to point until they reach the large building.
the focus shifts, zooming in on the wheel house.
the six other dots quickly move up, join the five. a brief pause, and then the surround the building. they move in, and the zoom changes to a blueprint of the wheel house. a large room dominates the layout, with several smaller ones off to the side.
Clear! a feminine voice chimes out from a speaker.
clear! a male responds.
clear as well! a third.
I dont see s~%%! a fourth, another woman replies.
As you can see Ragon cuts of the speaker this is standard movement for fire teams. they breached the structure, and swept it for danger.
the dots move around some more. they stand back from the large room, and amazingly, a large yellow rectangle appears on the top down blueprint.
That is the rear entrance to the hive.
the map changes from top down to elevation. The mansion, the wheel house, and other structures appear in vertical in blues. An orange shaft slants down at an angle and then stretches to the right, off screen.
zooming out.
the image of the bainbrige property, its buildings and greenspace, suddenly shift, growing smaller and smaller as the shaft continues to slant at a slight decline down, down, down and to the right.
finally, the property is but a small green blob on the screen, a large orange shaft runs from a large, multi tiered structure. Words flash up on the image.
to the left, at the start of the shaft bainbrigde mansion on bainbridge island.
letters in orange appear below the orange shaft The tunnel to the Hive
a massive multi-tiered complex appears deep deep below ground. words highlighted in red read The Hive.
A white line rises vertically up from the Hive. it stops at the same height as the bainbridge property. the word Seattle blazes boldly.
Captain Ragon speaks The Wheel house is the back door, so to speak, to the Hive. When the hive was being constructed, the crews would drive their trucks through the tunnel to remove the excavated material. theyd dump the rock off the hills on this property into the water. the rocks would be picked up and transported away. The wheel house was built over this back entrance. The tunnel itself is 8 miles in length. it is 150 feet wide and 50 feet in height. after initial excavations, a rail was built into the tunnel, and runs the length in 15 minutes. the image of a small train car appears in silhouette, and a childlike Choo choo chirps from the speaker.
as you smirk at the childish noise, red dots appear on the map. you seem them descend and board the train. the train gets (on the map) a foot away from the wheel house and suddenly, they disappear. A timer appears on the map, indicating the time. 30 minutes pass, and the train appears back on the map at the wheel house. but no red dots are seen again.
Warren watches the displays with interest and when the briefing stops asks "It's hard for me to tell scale on this, how far down the track was it when the teams lost link? Is it normal to lose link that far underground? Would the dots show up even if they were dead?" He nods then says "I think that's it for now." a questioning look on his face.
Are there any cameras on the tunnel? Did the mercenaries have body cams ons? Any footage we could recover from anywhere? Wraith asks, scratching his chin and eyes fixed on the holographic map.
Tatyana let the others look and ask questions as she work on the documents she had.
Ragon frowns i know. scale for that map is a bit rough, but i would guess a mile or two down. the train went down to the end of the line, and then came back up within the 30 minute window. So, the team disappeared about 3 to five minutes into the trip.
as for cameras, not in the tunnel itself. One set of cameras are in the wheel house. another set are at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the storm killed the comms between the manor and matrix. And the house isnt configured to store cam feeds either. all of it was managed at Umbrealla's HQ.
The red queen is an AI model who's primary focus is the security and protection of the Hive. Her main function is to perform security checks on all key card and bioaccess requests. She also regulates environmentals, controlling room temperatures in all levels of the Hive.
Her capabilities also include crowd control, nonlethal and lethal responses. She can flood whole floors with tear gas and knock out gasses. There was a file that caught your eye, labeled top secret. On level 4, the Red Queen has special access to lasers connected to microscopic filters and bioreaders. Biologic containment failsafe is highlighted next to these lasers.
More of these lasers are found on levels 9 thru 14.
The red queen also has security and power control over the elevator and the transit train from the wheel house.
"It is an immune system." Tatyana spoke up as she rose from her seat. "There is an AI, it runs the whole Hive. It could have very likely been the thing that disconnected the system from the trix." She said as she joined the others.
"Captain Ragon, who was your team sending unto the matrix?" Tatyana asked. "Did your party know beforehand that there was a defense system already active? Or how powerful it was?"
Hmm, I wonder what would cause the Hive to cut itself off. Surely not just a few intruders... Wraith muses.
"If I had to random a guess, biological outbreak of some form." Tatyana answered Wraith. "That level 4 I mentioned, there is a biologic containment failsafe. As well as on levels 9 through 14. They where playing with something they did not fully understand. Which, well how many times has that happened? Not like it is shocking."
Tatyana sighed, people always tried to play god. Get more money, power, or just simple ego stroking. "What is the saying? So busy wondering if you could you never stopped to wonder if you should?" Obviously this was simply a statement, completely rhetorical.
"It has control over everything in there. Elevators, the train, being able to open a door! If they went in without this knowledge, their hacker did not even know what was waiting for them."