Sparks of the Soul: Machina Sins

[Arachnion As Captain Jack]

"Yeesh, slow down with the interrogation! It's a bit complicated to get out all at once."

Dr. Hale sighed before he continued.
"To be honest, I don't have permission, though they are probably going to let me through anyways. As for things going wrong, I really didn't want to scare you...or make you charge hazard pay...but they're doing experiments on this alien "egg", and if I don't stop them before the creature inside breaks loose, we'll have pretty much the worst situation you can imagine on our hands."

Shortly the military base was visible up ahead. Everything seemed normal, at least from the outside.
"You can come inside with me to help out if you want, but really I hired you as a ride out of here more than anything else. Didn't have enough money to pay for anything else, in the end..."

[Kisuke]

Kat stepped into her room and looked around. "Well... this is better than I expected.." She flopped down onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. "Bed's nice and soft and big... feels like home." Suddenly her stomach growled and she sat up. "Wonder where the cafeteria is..." She walked out of her room, closing the door behind her, and decided to try and navigate her way to the lunch area. Kat paused outside of Valeriya's door and knocked. "Val, wanna help me find the cafeteria?"

[Optix]

Great. Now you've done it Flick. What the hell did you get yourself into now? Alien eggs? Entering a military base without permission? Not charging a higher price?
Flick was going to have to change some things when she got home, if she got home.
First she wasn't going to be taking on any more jobs without full disclosure before accepting and second she was going to start charging more.
This was all well and good, but at the moment she had a slight pickle of a situation on her hands. On the one hand she could take the money and leave but on the other hand she felt bad for contemplating it.
Letting out a sigh as she slowed the mech down, Flick had made her decision and she was sure she'd come to regret this for the rest of her life. "I'll come in with you. And don't worry, I'm not going to charge you any extra at all. I just hope my mech doesn't get damaged, or you can pay for the damages... Oh and I better not catch some horrible disease or get shot at in there. Deal?"

[Kilroywuzheere]

Markus walked into his room, finding his luggage on the bed. A small note was attached. "Exodus seems to be running right but if you forgot something we need to check the link. Please report to engineering."

Dammit.

Sighing and tossing down a few of his extras on the desk, he noticed an Exodus port next to a small computer. "Guess I can't escape running diagnostics...." It really was the worst part of having Exodus. Having to remember that he needed it. That without it he was no better than a child, probably worse than one actually.

Sighing, Markus left his room, Exodus mapping out a path to engineering, or perhaps it was just where the techs were supposed to hang out. "Make sure they're there for me Exodus." Markus spoke aloud. A small pause was followed by a thought, the message was sent. Markus started walking along the path to engineering, passing a familiar face along the way. "Oh hey Kat." He waved, Exodus whirred and then he thought of something. "I'm on my way to Engineering, want me to take your map and get it fixed while I'm there?"

[Takezo]

Valeriya opened her door, grabbed and started buckling on her belt. "Yeah sure."

[Kisuke]

"Huh? Oh, sure, thanks!" Kat smiled and handed Markus her busted map. She then turned her attention to Valeriya, "sweet! Now I wont be helplessly lost." She stepped aside for Valeriya to step out of her room. "Lead the way, o keeper of the map."

[furon117]

Juan
After having found his room he sat on his bed reading till he heard sounds outside. Opening the door a little he saw people outside and heard what they were talking about. He stepped out of his room and approached the group. "Hey mind if I join you? I'm kinda hungry myself"

[Takezo]

"I don't have any objections. Come on, let's go."

[Toastradamus]

Iggy heard the rest of the pilots mention going off into the other areas of the ship. As he was starting to get a little bored already, he decided to follow them. "Could I tag along with you guys?"

[Arachnion As Captain Jack]

The bridge of the Gravitas was nestled deep inside the ship; back when it had been a cruise vessel it was the secondary command center, in case of emergency. Now it had taken over the role of primary bridge from the more external previous one, its complete lack of windows making much more sense for a military vessel.

That's not to say the bridge crew was entirely cut off from the outside; far from it, in fact. Three absolutely massive monitors gave everyone inside a stunning view of the space around the ship as it orbited Matthew.

The various tactical displays covering up the view were not so pretty, but such were the pains of working for the military.

There were plenty of desks on the bridge, but for the moment only three were filled-those of the first mate, comms officer, and operator. Each had something to keep them occupied, ranging from running the ship for the two young women to a sudoku puzzle for the first mate.

as the comms officer finished up her call to Rachel, the captain entered. He was an aging man, with a vertical scar over his left eye and a fine white beard.
"ugh, stupid lack of signs...back when I ran a fleet we actually put signs on things...First officer Yang!"
"Yes sir!"
"Status report on our supplies!"
"Well, we've got all the various testing materials, and then I went for extra stuff, just in case of an emergency."
"How much extra stuff?"
"Weeeell..."

******
Of course, Dr. Hale thought, She has to ask me for things I cannot provide...
"I can promise absolutely none of those things...but I'll try."
Dr.Hale followed Felicity out of the mecha as they stopped in front of the base.
"My ID should still be good for getting us in, but I've got more than a few weapons if that fails...do you have a gun?"
Probably not, given the whole skin-tight pilot suit...
They were just a short walk from the base up ahead, but still far away enough that the guards wouldn't notice them.

*****
This was not the first time that Captain Micheal Cervantes had to deal with a subordinate being too smart for their own good, but it was probably the worst.
"So...you brought five mercenaries on board for a secret military test...just in case we needed the extra firepower."
"Yes sir! I filled out all the required forms to have them tag along, sir."
"The paperwork isn't the problem...look, I just make a habit of knowing who my crew members are. Go find them and bring them here, unless that apocalypse you've been planning for shows up."
"Yes sir!"

Once he had left the bridge the young woman operating the comms spoke up. "Sir, couldn't you just have called the mercenaries on the intercom?"
"Yes, but this way he gets to think on his security breach while searching the entire ship for five people."

[Optix]

Flick was one step ahead of the Doc, quickly climbing back up the ladder to her mech and grabbing her two guns and her jacket, tucking one gun under her right armpit and the other on her left hip, hidden from view by the long jacket.
She then looks at Dr Hale and smiles before gesturing for him to lead the way.

[Kisuke]

Kat looked at the person who had just walked up (Iggy) and nodded. "Sure, I don't see why not." She smiled then turned and followed Valeriya down the hall towards the cafeteria.

[Arachnion As Captain Jack]

Felicity and Dr.Hale certainly cut an interesting figure as they walked towards the base. Both were wearing long, black jackets that billowed slightly in the breeze, and were horribly unsuited for the 90°F heat and high humidity of a city in the jungle. All they needed was sunglasses, and they'd have the complete costume package for a duo of badasses assaulting an evil base.


The checkpoint was set away from the base, in case someone ever got the bright idea of just driving a car through it. The gates themselves covered both lanes of the road leading up to the base with the actual booth off to one side, just in case somebody needed to use both lanes of the road for a machina or something.

The guard looked up from his station as they approached, smiling widely.
"Ah, so Flick's no longer too high and mighty to use our repair facilities..."
"Actually, we're just visiting..." Dr. Hale slid the man an ID, which he quickly checked over.
"Huh...system says you're dead."
"Well do I look dead to you?"
The guard looked up at Dr. Hale, then back down to the ID, then back to the doctor.
"No, I guess not..alright, these are your visitor passes for the day. They'll get you through the front door, and up to everything but the machina bays and research labs." He slid them back the ID, and two small plastic cards. "Just turn them in when you leave, and don't cause any trouble."

"Thanks." The two walked on forward through the gate, their new passes getting them through the guardpost at the front door. The hallways after that were mostly empty, so Dr.Hale decided to start some conversation while they walked through the base.


"So, Felicity...Have you ever done anything quite like this before?"

[Optix]

Flick answered Dr Hale's question as the pair walked through the many hallways inside the base, "If by 'this' you mean using an invalid ID to enter a military base, with the intents of stopping a top secret research project that we don't have permission to walk in on, then no I haven't done 'this' before. I've broken into a top secret research facility and stolen top secret research and developments before though if that counts."
She didn't mind telling Dr Hale this, what was he going to do with the information, report her to the military while breaking every rule in the book himself?

[Arachnion As Captain Jack]

"Well, that's way more experience than I have." The two quickly found a hallway leading to the restricted area of the base, with two guards standing by a locked door.
"Right, so I'll take the one on the right, you take the one on the left...when I say go, we start swingin'. Ready?"
Felicity nodded, so the two walked down the hallway and up to the guards. Dr.Hale was nice and friendly, up until the point where the guard started to inspect his ID.
"Wait, this isn't-"
"Go!" He landed the first punch on the guard's face, following it up with a second and third. From there it was easy to just tear the guy's helmet off and slam his head into the wall behind him, knocking the guy out.

Dr.Hale turned to Felicity once she was done, holding up two small brown blocks connected by various colorful and slightly threatening wires in the palm of his hand. "So, would you like to do the honors, or should I?"