[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn slips into the comfortable world of VR as soon as the men left.  Her avatar spring onto the host grid and enters as before, looking as if it belongs there.  She glides effortlessly through the racks of files and again finds herself in position to infiltrate the first camera sensor, waiting on the command to do so.  While waiting, Robyn takes some time to run another check on the passage and finds no hidden sensors in the section of tunnels the team will travel through.  Upon receiving ISaint's message, she slips into the camera sensor, guiding the device to be looking momentarily in another direction.  She sends the word to ISaint to proceed quickly to the area of the second camera, telling exactly where to stop as she repeats the process and sends them on to the motion detector.

This device is a bit trickier and she has to work a bit harder to get in.  Simply controlling the device will not work here so she quickly moves to the file she had detected earlier and edits it to show that no motion were detected during the time the team is moving past it.  The last sensor is another camera and is easily circumvented.  Once the team is at the vent duct, she slips out of all the sensors to stand watch.  Now it is up to ISaint, Al, and Deckard.

[adamu]

Al was leading the way through the duct, his nose crudely taped shut against the dust. Unlike Isaint with his fully sealed get-up, he was wearing a yellowing wife-beater and fatigue trousers, beathing air from his internal supply. The trolley was in front of him, it's only load for now a monofilament chainsaw and some industrial throw-down cloths they'd liberated from a recycling station in a service area..

Before leaving the bakery, he'd stowed his shotgun and ammo in the hiding place he'd built into Robyn's cello case, shifted everything he might need - basically just his Caliban - from his jacket into the cargo pockets of his fatigues, and laid the leather bomber number beside the woman. She knew how important it was to him. Then he'd pulled his tool kit from the mule, stripped away the non-essentials and configured it into a workbelt, fastened it around his waist. It fit nicely around the big knife at the small of his back.

Now he was almost to the spot they'd chosen, the voice of Robyn's avatar having confirmed clearance of all the sensors. Once she confirmed he was in the right place, he stopped, laid out the blanket-like cloths, and started up the cutting tool.He concentrated on the work, knowing his coworkers had his back.

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn senses Al as he puts his jacket down next to her.  "Hey, Al.  You come back for this, hear?  I have not found you after eight years just to lose you again."  She concentrates on watching the matrix for anything that would indicate the crew in the duct had been discovered, but so far nothing indicates a problem.  Likewise, Halfpint is keeping watch with the drones, looking for anything amiss.

[Jack_Spade]

"Careful now Al", Isaint set another stone carefully down on rugs. "We don't want to break through before..."
He stopped as he received a message from his Agent. "Never mind, the distraction just went loud. Keep at it."

<<Team from Isaint: In case you haven't noticed, the other team with their extraction plot just went loud. Keep you heads down - we are close to breaking through.>>

#304

[Aria]

[Sunday July 5th, 2076; Ventilation Shaft, London Underplex]

Despite your precautions the cutting is uncomfortably loud but with Robyn watching the matrix, Halfpint monitoring the meat world and Deckard watching the astral you are fairly confident that you will get sufficient warning if things are about to go sour.  With the distraction happening at the other side of the Underplex hopefully any interested eyes are looking the other direction anyway…

With a hiss of stale escaping air you break through into the magazine and it doesn’t take long for you to widen a gap enough to take a look through and eventually wriggle through into the long abandoned space.  You are in the arm of the beast, behind you a large sealed blast door that is slowly succumbing to the depredations of time.  The beams of your lights play across the dust hazed air revealing the octagonal chamber beyond.  Moving forwards into the room you can see six further, no less impressive, blast doors in respective walls.  The final wall is made up of a computer terminal that has long since given up the ghost.

Your target should be behind door three according to Mr J’s information…

***

#18

[adamu]

Peering into the dusty chamber was like going back in time. It reminded Al of a day when hiding underground could protect you from most weapons. And the computer was reminiscent of the sort of dinosaur he used to salvage from scrapyards nd tinker with back on the mountain.

Pouring himself easily through the hole, he found door number three and began a careful examination for security or locking devices.

[Mercy Merchant]

Halfpint's security drones outside the building quickly pick up the sight of people moving away from the area of the distraction, some running.  Security forces are being drawn that way, making the possibility of exfiltration that much easier.  He maneuvers one of the drones to keep tabs on the disturbance from a distance so it does not get caught up in what is likely to be a security sweep of that area of the Underplex.  For her part, Robyn is maintaining watch in the host for any sign that the disturbance might cause someone to check out areas not directly involved.  Deckard is standing in a blind spot for sensor coverage and the those inside the bakery should be alright as well.  That leaves the vault. 

Robyn sends her avatar into the vault to seek out any security systems and is surprised by the antiquity of everything there.  The place seems to have been forgotten by everyone.  The computer and security doors have aged badly and it does not seem like any maintenance, routine or otherwise, has been done here for years.  She easily slips into the door and disables what would have been a state of the art alarm system when it was built but is now mostly junk a basic hacker could compromise.  However, Robyn has not been in this business for decades by assuming that everything is as it seems and she digs deeper, looking for something newer.  And finds it.  She sends a quick message out.  >>Vault Team.  Robyn.  Hold your places, boys.  Someone has added a security trigger to the door in question.  Let me check it out.<<  She deftly marks the trigger and looks at it closely, determining the purpose and method of activation.  Even though it is newer than the rest of the things in the vault, it is still pretty basic compared to the sophisticated alarms available today.  It take only seconds before she has bypassed the trigger, rendering the door only so much dead weight.  >>OK.  Alarm gone.  You should be good to cut through the door.<<

[Jack_Spade]

"Hold back for a moment Al. I just want to take a look into the astral to make sure we haven't awoken something. Also I think we should widen our escape route before we open up a potential can of worms."
Isaint concentrated and opened his third eye to take a look at the astral plain. He trusted Rick to do his job, but checking again couldn't hurt...


Astral Perception: 8d6t5 2 [8d6t5=2, 5, 1, 4, 5, 2, 1, 3]

[Aria]

[Sunday July 5th, 2076; Eurowars Magazine, London Underplex]

This place is dead, and has been for a long time, only your auras paint a pale glow on the astral.  Ignoring the other five doors you apply your tools to door three and with a shriek of mono edge on rusting metal you are able to slice through the now disabled locking mechanisms and render the heavy blast door openable…

Heaving the three hundred mill thick hatch open your lights immediately illuminate the single green military crate in the centre of the long chamber beyond, as you play them around you realise with a shock that there are also bodies in here…they are in full hazmat suits and judging by the dust layer they have been in here for some time.  There are three by the hatch as if they’d been clawing at it, another is about half way down sitting against the wall…a rust brown stain behind the body mars the otherwise grey paint and the hand is clutching a heavy pistol…

***

#19

[Jack_Spade]

"Well, I have the distinct feeling that our Johnson left out a significant detail regarding this artifact. I think it would be wise not to touch it directly."
Isaint shot some photos of the scene and sent them to the team.
<<We have the object - probably - but the display suggests whoever locked this in here thought the persons carrying there should not leave. I have no idea if  they did this to prevent spreading knowledge or some form of communicable effect like a disease. Regardless, we'll handle it with the utmost care.>>

Remembering the lessons Rick had given him, Isaint concentrated and touched the spell fetish he carried.


Spell casting Levitate Force 6: 7d6t5 2 [7d6t5=3, 4, 2, 5, 6, 3, 4]

[adamu]

Al was just spitting on his palms to pick the thing up and put it on the trolley when Isaint warned him off and started his hocus pocus.

It gave him a moment to light a cigarette and take in the grisly scene. Away from the dense concentration of dust in the ducts, he didn't see any danger in going off his internal air - whatever the hell was down here, these men's hazmat suits hadn't helped them, so his little cyber gizmo wasn't going to be much use.

"Well, here's what I reckon - whatever done transpired here, it were quick an' it were balls out terrifyin'. Rational men locked ferever inna vault might eventually decide ta eat a bullet, but they don't waste they last hours scratchin' at a door like that with they fingernails. They were desperate beyond thinkin' ta git out, and do it lickety split. Hell, if they'd been stuck in here any length o' time, they'd o' stripped out that hot MOP gear afore long. But since I ain't exactly eager fer my coworkers ta face the same fate, couldn't hurt ta learn more."

He bent down to look at the fingertips of the men by the door - the more wear and tear on the gloves, the longer they would have been clawing at it. Then he stood up and started looking at the ground - if no one had been in here all this time, any sign should be well preserved. He quickly found indications of the men having entered. He next looked to see if he could tell whether anyone had left - sure, they could have been double-crossed, but he wasn't ruling out the possibility that something inside the room had pulled the door shut on them. With that thought, he also looked at the lock to see if it would automatically activate on the door being shut.

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn slips a message to the others.  >>Are there any markings on the crates or the bodies?  Open the suits and see if you can find IDs or wallets or anything I can use to help refine a matrix search for this thing.  A date of some kind would be helpful.<<  While waiting for the information from the team, Robyn starts spooling a matrix search for anything that might help identify the device.  She is looking for any pre-crash rumors or stories of what might have happened here.  She sends a second message.  >>Just to let you guys know, I would consider this thing to be at least non-public knowledge and a good search would take at least a half hour.  If they actively hid any information on this, it could take half a day or longer.  Not sure we have that time.  I might be able to fire off a question to my friends, but the more specifics I can provide them the better.<<

[Jack_Spade]

<<Roger.>>

While Al looked around, Isaint shot some more photos of the dead man and their gear. While he did so, he noticed a bullet hole in the side of the chest. Quickly he searched his gear and produced a sensor tag. Hesitating a moment, he applied the tag to the bullet hole and shoved it inside.
<<Life feed from inside the chest on its way to you. Sorry, only normal camera, but I'll try to shine a light through the hole, so maybe you can get something from that. In any case we'll have to move this thing out. The distraction won't last and whatever else we do, we can't leave this thing here now that we have disturbed it's obscurity. Maybe someone in Below can help us clarify what it is. We can discuss the details once we are back at the base.>>

"Ok Al, have you found something else? My gas mask tells me, that there was practically no oxygen inside this room until we opened it. Let's get this thing outside."

And with that he applied his will and carefully levitated the box out of the vault.

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn examines the feed from ISaint's camera as much as possible, but it's ability to send useful data is limited by the available light, which is precious little.  The stills he transmits are better, but offer little in the way of useful information.  She tries to refine what she can see of the interior of the box.

[adamu]

After looking carefully at the door, the ground inside and out, and the men's gloves, Al picks up the one weapon he sees in the room and checks the clip. Five shots. One into the crate. He found the other shots scattered around. None into the other men - or into anyone else that was still here...

He answered Isaint: "Yeah, suffocation sounds good. They was poundin', not scratchin', which ain't so crazy...if they know they's someone outside the room that might could open the door for 'em. So yer double-cross idear's soundin' better an' better...with this one feller preferrin' a quick end ta asphyxiatin'..." Al thought back to the endless hours and days he'd spent fighting for breath on that freighter in '70, and felt for all for of these guys.

"But who was he shootin' at afore he offed hisself? The joker what ducked out an' shut 'em in?"

He thought about the hole in the crate, and the fact that these men had never removed their suits througout their ordeal. Thought of switching back to internal air, but figured if there was any danger he'd had it already.

"That fancy gas mask o' yer's tell ya if they's anything partickalarly non-oxygen-like seepin' outta this here crate? Or fillin' this room?" he asked as he moved with Isaint and the floating box back toward the duct, wondering if they were even going to need his nifty little trolley.