essen ♔ where not a single soul gets through

[superswank]

♬ rainbow factory - glaze

WHO || Sydney B., Andrew, Diana, Felicity, Sebastian [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights investigate a hacker friend of Andrew's who has gone off the grid
WHERE || Essen, Germany
WHEN || Jan 10th, shortly before 7pm [forwarddated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

The flight to Essen is very short, only about half an hour, and Sydney makes good time flying them there. Wynn has a car already rented and waiting for them as usual and then it's a short drive to the coordinates Lady Nell sent them.

While the neighborhood in question was once a very nice residential development, it now shows decades of neglect. There is a squat, one-story storefront across from what appears to be a riot control vehicle that appears severely battered.

Comments

[allmydreams]

[Felicity still can't see all that well in the dark, but vents are usually her area of expertise. She'll start searching in earnest, even if she probably won't spot them first (search 11).]

[badexample]

[With his game face on, Andrew is not missing any details (search 27). He's silent, though. And his hands are shaking, one still tightly holding into that necklace.]

[superswank]

[ andrew's the one who sees it, near the back of the room, not actually near the ceiling, but on the wall - a panel that operates an emergency exit near hidden behind a propped up half-eaten corpse. ]

[badexample]

There. [He says, sounding strained and pointing up ahead where the vent's hiding.][Body. That body that may be one of Alice's colleagues if it's not Alice herself. God he's going to be sick. Or cry. Or both.]

[opprobrium]

Come on Man, lead the way. Get your revenge for what they've done to your girl.

[ Sebastian spoke stepping up near Andrew, this wasn't his area of expertise, but much like the dead guy they ran into early the whole thing just rubbed him wrong. He wanted to see whoever caused this suffer.]

[superswank]

[ yeah syd recognizes that andrew's done enough here, so she's gonna go push that body out of the way herself with a little bit of effort. she pulls out a little swiss army knife and pops the screws off the thing, setting the lid of the vent aside. ] It's gonna be tight. C'mon. [ climb check DC of 5 to not... slide back down the tunnel as it does angle slowly upwards as they crawl out to freedom. sydney makes it look easy though, keeping her limbs locked against the outside as she scurries up (climb 20) ]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity's not far behind her, taking to the vents like a fish to water (climb 20). It probably helps that she occasionally does this for a living.]

[badexample]

[Andrew keeps shuffling along behind the girls (climb 18), keeping quiet and just trying to focus on moving forward.]

[opprobrium]

[ Sebastian moved behind them, mostly because the girls seemed to know what to do and he figured someone needed to stay to the back besides Andrew. He stayed quiet for now now as he followed them into the vents (climb 14)]

[superswank]

[ at the top, they hit a grate, which sydney tries to bust open, kicking several times before it finally loosens and cracks enough that she can pry it off. and out they spill into the cold air outside the building. ]

[badexample]

[As they get out of the vent, Andrew remains quiet, withdrawn. He's basically in shock and just functioning on auto pilot.]

She's really gone. [He mumbles to himself.]

[opprobrium]

[ Sebastian followed quietly, pulling his collar up just before he slipped out. Keeping his eyes open for things that seemed strange even for him (Spot: 19) ]

[superswank]

We need to find out why. Can you... interface the implant with your laptop, Andrew? [ gotta keep him on track - they don't have time to let things sink in yet ]

[badexample]

Yeah- [He sounds like he's still in a half a daze.] Yeah, I should be able to. Laptop's back at the van.

[So he will head vaguely in that direction. And unless something intense happens when they get there or on the way, he gets to work and falls into the rhythm of what he's best at (computer use 32).]

[superswank]

[ they make it back to the van safely and gather around as andrew pulls alice's 'paydata' up that sobriquet had told them about. it's all in german, but andrew can easily run it through a translation program.

the top of the page reads: "Data Summary: Project Icarus" and it appears to be some kind of delivery receipt.

Delivery Notice

Items shipped:
30 stainless steel hospital gurneys
1440 body bags
3200 IV kits
2 MT-435 Genetic Stabilizer Units
3 crash carts
30 BG3 Medical Scanners

Shipped to:
17272 NE 104th
Essen, Germany

Data Summary: Project Icarus

Excerpt of CENSORED Internal Resume, Michael Smith, Project Icarus Lead Research 2006-2008

Project Icarus was a research project sponsored by CENSORED and based in CENSORED. The aim of the project was to attempt to reduce the loss of magical integrity normally caused by introducing bioware, by allowing the implants to grow along with the recipient. By matching the development of the bioware implants to the recipient, we were able to achieve a 30% success rate, with only a 63% fatality rate. In June of 2008, the project was deemed incapable of offering marketability, and the project's assets and test subjects were liquidated.

In the process of leading research, I became intimately familiar with the MT-435 Genetic Stabilizer Unit. While this piece of equipment is generally considered useless in most research, it was vital to Project Icarus, and is very similar to the MT-2071 units used in your project.

]

Bioware implants? That's what this technology Alice had was called, wasn't it?

[opprobrium]

[ Once back in the van Sebastian pulled his overshirt off, since he had a sleeveless shirt on under it and started to use the sleeve to bind the scratches, the fabric of the shirt also offered over to Felicity silently. Let the techies do their thing.]

[badexample]

Yeah, that's what she called it. [He's seeing the words, but having trouble focusing on them, truthfully.] What are you thinking?

[superswank]

These items are all hospital equipment: and with this talk of fatality rates...

[ she glances over her shoulders at the others, mouth pressed into a tight line. ] They were doing some kind of experiments on people.

[badexample]

That's sick. [Traumatized geek here with your obvious commentary.]

We've got to stop them, yeah?

[superswank]

It seems like that's what the Irregulars were trying to do. But I don't know how this ties back to what they were paid to look into: Mrs. Johnson, the pregnant newlywed.

Either way, there's an address. It seems a good start.

[badexample]

...I'm not sure I want to think about how bioware implants and a pregnant woman might be connected.

[The answer is zombie robot babies. And another day? That might be cool. Now, it just makes him want to puke.]

So- yeah, moving out. Y'mind if I take a minute? I just... [He's still visibly shaken. Time outs on mission aren't exactly a luxury they can probably afford, but he just wants to take a second to step aside and not worry about not looking like a wuss.]

[superswank]

[ she glances at the others, and then nods once. ] Take all the time you need, Andrew. We'll move out when you're ready.

[badexample]

[brb gonna walk over here and have a small meltdown. talk amongst yourselves.]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity takes the shirt with a small smile, ready to dress up the wound if she can, and watching Andrew as he stepped off to the side. All the same, she turned back to Sydney.]

How do you want to approach this? Given what just happened it might be good if we go in with a more solid plan.

[superswank]

Maybe this time we don't try going in the front door. They might be expecting us, if they check to find out whether those ... things finished the job or not. They have to have suspected what intel Alice had gathered.