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A2     A far cry from the slick space bunker from before, the utterly titanic abandoned factory complex before that, and the blasted desert wasteland even before that, where landfall transpires around the general coordinates of the Resistance cell's general known location (and the handler's last transmission), one would be forgiven for assuming it to be an entirely different world altogether. Despite being a world run by machines, dominated by a nigh-eternal struggle between beings of metal and plastic, with history marked by the endless churning of the industry of war instead of human achievement, where they land is very . . .

    Green. Healthy, even. Of course, there's no mistaking what it's supposed to be. On all sides of the arrival area, the mummefied remains of human civilization are apparent. The vacant shells of skyscrapers and highways stand like jumbled tombstones everywhere anyone looks, rotting away in extreme slow motion due to their advanced post-modern construction. Fragments of old parks, roads and drains are everywhere, but still, nature thrives. The entire place is choked with greenery. Trees tower hundreds of meters tall --much larger than in any modern world-- and massive vines and thick grass choke every square inch they can. Vast tracts of open city are now converted plains, which have been transparently grazed on by herd animals, and sewer runoffs and storm drains now run clean with fresh water that forms pools and lakes and which teem with fish. Completely oblivious to the legacy it's trampling on, the natural world has flourished all around.

    It makes sense, come to think of it. What use would androids, or the Machine intelligence, have for meat, fish, water, or lumber? With no need to eat or drink, to shelter from the environment, or to indulge in physical distraction, harvesting nature would be completely pointless, and with one side constructing everything in space while the other does underground, both using hyper-advanced energy efficient methods, pollution seems to be a non-issue, at least here.

    Finding a missing person in this urban thicket, more like a national park than a citys, will be a pain. Finding a collection of people with some sort of community or camp will be easier, albeit only half the job.
Starbound Flotilla "Woooooah!"
"Astounded. I had expected that the whole world would be..."
"Nature reclaims all things, eventually. Some more spectacularly than others."
"Not much that a mortal makes can last."
"Hmmm, and this is a weird situation. 'Cause we're tracking just robots."
"They won't have fires, may not need lights... Hm. Will need another approach."

    The Starbound Flotilla have no problem flying this way, and in fact have likely provided transportation for any others who lacked their own independent means of flying over here. A couple nice big fancy spacecraft touch down and dispense the whole group, who emerge with gleaming armor.

    Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a divine-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow runes and inscriptions lighting up on stylishly gleaming golden armor and robes. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a futuristic combat EVA hardsuit that glows a gentle red at the flat faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator.

    Albert makes a motion, and Seft immediately sets up a dedicated scanning station at the landing site. "Unusual material needs for androids means we can't look for standard signs of a Resistance." Albert says, advising the group as best he can. "Try to locate trails of activity left behind instead of activity itself."
Iria This place is truly a definite change from where they've been before. It's a bit more green and healthy, almost like nothing bad had ever happened before. Of course, Iria sees that while it looks nice and healthy, it's definitely anything but. The skyscrapers and highways might look ordinary enough, but it's plain to see that nobody is inside of the buildings or using the roadways. In fact, the greenery is a bit overexcessive considering that it's gone beyond what should be normal for a place like this. The greenery has started to spread its vines and ivies across buildings and other things, definitely reinforcing the appearance of an abandoned place.

The way the plains show signs of grazing and the fact that fish are inhabiting lots of bodies of water really seem like a huge contrast in another way as well, in that there's no humans around, but the animals live perfectly fine. It's all kind of ironic to Iria, but she knows that's not the thing to be focusing on here. She's here with the others on a rescue mission, and that's exactly what she's going to do, no matter how difficult it seems.

Of course, finding someone in a huge place like this, whether it's a city or a gigantic park, isn't going to be easy. Which is why Iria's a little on the grumpy side as she starts to realize just how complicated this might be. Nevertheless, she shakes it off and looks around a little before looking forward with a resolute look on her face. "We know they sent the signal from this place, and we may not know where they are, but we're gonna find them!" A smile appears on her face.
Krusty     Arriving at their destination, the first thing that Krusty does is admire their surroundings. There's a bit of a smirk on his face at the irony. Here he is, adventuring to other worlds, only to end up in a place that looks a lot like his own, "A familiar sight..." Granted, Akihabara isn't quite as overrun by nature as this place, but there are some zones in Yamato which are more wild, and so closely resemble the sight before him now.

    The next thing that Krusty does is equip his weapon, a few finger swipes having it manifest on his back. He doesn't take the large two-handed axe though, leaving it there for the moment.

    To the others joining the mission, Krusty nods to each in greeting. Some he knows already, others are new to him, but he doesn't doubt he'll know them by the end. As they begin working on ways to track down their objective, Krusty leaves it to them. He doesn't have such skills himself... Maybe he should have brought along a Tracker. Ah well, surely others in their party have it covered.
All-Seeing Eye Sitting astride a hoverbike held aloft by purple jets of chemically induced fire, All-Seeing Eye smiles. The vehicle is parked atop a hill overlooking one of the skyscraper graveyards, giving him a sweeping view of the abandoned infrastructure.

     "My, my, my. Mortals do take nature for granted, don't they, Batou?" The finger pressed against his temple carries the message to the other Paladin through the radio frequency. "The cute little things consuming the grass below can't have any idea what purpose those decaying husks once served--and yet, they're the beings who remain to make use of them."

     The Alchemical's vantage point is separate from the LZ the other have chosen, but is shared to the Paladins tactical network in the event any others want to rendezvous there. Whether they do or they don't, he's not just sitting up there looking pretty. He's sitting up there, looking pretty, and zooming in on the buildings with his vision, scanning window by window for signs of habitation.

     His goal is to get a 'big picture' of the city before bogging himself down with details. Perhaps there are markings the resistance uses to communicate with each other, not unlike the multicolored glyphs of his homeworld?
Tanya Degurechaff     Behind the spacesuit-equipped Flotilla captains, stepping off the spacecraft that deposited them, is someone literally half the size of any of them. A small, blue-eyed blonde girl in a drab olive combat suit. Upon setting foot on solid ground, Major Tanya von Degurechaff lifts her gaze to peer at the towering ruin and equally towering trees that make up the city's skyline. She frowns slightly, a blue glow lighting up behind her eyes as she lifts a foot or so off the ground.

    Turning towards the Starbounders, she opens her mouth-- only to see they're well under way doing most likely what she was about to ask them to. With a nod, she instead states, "Good thinking. Proactivity will reward us, here." She un-slings her rifle, checking the chamber, then lifts another foot or so, "I'm going to start aerial recon. Keep me posted."

    With no further fanfare, Tanya ascends further, breaking into a spiral as she gains altitude towards the tops of the trees and what's left of the buildings.
Kyoko Takada     The most obvious reason for Alpha-39 to be here is that YoRHa asked her to complete an objective. If one had access to Watch channels (and knew that A-39 was with the Watch), they might instead recall her saying she'd make use of this world as the salvager's paradise it is. Neither motive is more than nominally correct, but that's not to say she isn't interested in what she can find among these ruins and these machines. Occasionally, her equipment gets used up, as recently as having to overload a dagger a few days ago while under an ocean. She'd only fall further behind if that kept up.
    A-39 gives the barest of nods to Krusty, someone in a situation similar to hers in at least one aspect, but she has no such difficulty when it comes to tracking. Set a thief to find a thief, and set spec ops to find a resistance cell. Fancy sensors aren't in her bag of tools, her mask gives her multi-spectra readings to some extent, but only on things she can directly see, and not to ultra-fine detail. Depending on how sneaky the people they're looking for were, it'll take a lot of effort for her to pick up the trail.
    Remembering how incredibly heavy A2 is, she doesn't think footprints will be that hard to find, at least.
Mei Hatsume Another person is scouring the landsacpe today! Mei Hatsume is zipping around on a pair of hoverboots, raised just high enough off the ground to avoid disturbing any potential tracks while staying just low enough to not risk banging her head on any low signs that might still be standing after so many years of neglect and rusting.

     "So this is what happens when people aren't around for so long... It's just like those documentaries!" Mei marvels idly while turning to circle around back towards the group, doing another quick sweep around them before taking Albert's cue to search for clues! More specifically, she's looking towards existing buildings and man-made objects to try and find any that might look like they've actually been touched once in the past year.

     "Do you think we'll find anything that might still work out here?"
Ezekiel Gravez Ezekiel emerges from the loading bay on the side of his hauler, with attached an environmental filter device that has been affixed to his face. He hops down from the side railing and onto the firm ground, where his bootheels leave imprints behind. He takes a long scan around, and waves to the other members that have also chosen the same landing field. With a caring hand, he pats the very dieselpunk looking hovership on the the rear quarter panel, as if saying goodbye to a family member.

     Ezekield joins the group at large, and his voice seems to come clearly through the facemask, "You know, I was preparin to see alotta strange, but this is somethin' else." He nods, and sticks the toe of a boot into a lichen covered remains of what may have been a road. Plants and vines punching through it along its length in spots, and parts of it completely covered in decaying vegetable matter. "I'm cued into the local comm network, so if we split up yall can ping me on it. I agree we should look for remnants, and poke around ruins and the like. I didn't come equipped for science, so forming a search I'll leave to any of you that thinks you can helm it." Zeke checks his pistol harness, and lifts the safety thong from the revolver, readying himself for quick action if he needs to. Zeke listens to Mei, and shrugs lightly but does seem absolutely interested in finding out. "We can go take a looksee and find out. We should prolly grab a buddy before fanning out."
Batou "It is ironic, considering how built up our separate worlds are currently. This is Earth, no doubt," Batou responds to Eye over the comms. "But these trees... were too perfect as a vantage point."

Batou and Tachikoma are both aloft in the trees not far from the other Paladin, viewing the greenery from several dozen meters up. Checking the files for this operation he can see it also has wastes far and wide. War will do that, especially when it involves the entire planet.

Batou is scanning the scenery with his thermal vision, his cybernetic eyes allowing him to see with great clarity at this height. Tachikoma is scanning for open networks to potentially probe and investigate to check for intel that may be useful for finding these operatives. All the while, Batou can see the Tachikoma spinning and emoting in his field of vision as it keeps him updated on the scan. Batou smiles, and continues to search for visual contact.
A2     Without being in the belly of a decrepit military-industrial behemoth regularly policed by untold thousands of drones, setting up a scanner is a cakewalk for the Flotilla this time. At the moment, it at least seems like there's nothing to draw the attention of from sending out active signals, and they certainly have plenty of space and time to accomplish it.

    What they find right away is mildly interesting. Most of the activity recently has been extremely high amounts of animal life, and very large animals at that, matching as deer and boars that dwarf the usual Earth breeds in size. Accordingly, the atmosphere is extremely rich in oxygen, and the ambient temperature appears to be unusually stable and warm. There are no signs of any nocturnal life whatsoever. The second most prevalant form of activity actually comes in the form of obvious signs of Machine passage; square footprints, fuel compounds, engine exhaust, and mild energy weapon residue, but not at a military scale, and not recently, as if they'd simply been moving forces out in the open like human soldiers on patrol. Android signals are agonizingly difficult to place in the midst of all this faint background data, which is probably exactly how they like it.

    Tanya taking to the air is immediately helpful. There's no doubt that the Machines must control the skies here, and must do so with such one-sided surety that they rarely bother to launch anything these days. Aside from flocks of geese, not much disturbs her up there. By contrast, she gets an unobstructed, panoramic view of the city ruins. Off in the very far distance, down miles and miles of fractured highway, she can spy the colossal, looming bulk of the gargantuan complex from before, out to sea, which means they must be by the coast, though down below she can spot herds of migrating bison and moose. A river runs through the area, directly into a steep gorge, across which are the ruins of an ancient shopping mall.

    In particular, there is a wooden bridge crossing the chasm. The fact that it is made out of wood is telling: if it were from previous human civilization, it'd have rotted to dust thousands of years ago. The Machines wouldn't need to use it, and yet they haven't seen fit to tear it down.
A2     On an opposite vantage point, All-Seeing Eye wouldn't have had much luck searching the buildings. There are umpteen thousands of them, and though all of them are crumbling and fraying around the edges, few are actually exposed all the way through. Most don't look as if they've been touched in centuries, though some contain crates and caches that could only still be there, rather than looted and stripped forever ago, if they were placed around the area as emergency stashes, which means they are at least /set up/ to be inhabited if need be.

    To add to the impression, Mei finds that /one/ of the wrecks of old radio towers seems sneakily prepped to transmit, using tiny and much more advanced additions to its thoroughly broken and useless ancient infrastructure. Batou's Tachikoma would be able to ascertain the same thing by scanning for networks, though none appear to be in use; it's simply the fact that outgoing pings are obviously absorbed the implanted receiver. Batou's thermal vision clues him into the movements of bustling animal life, the same as A-39 would discover on her own, as well as the physical evidence of Machines in passing. Batou has the luxury of being able to track the movements of basically every other Elite in the area and keep tabs on where they investigate. A-39 is the one who stumbles across one particular data that she is ironically best suited to.

    An old snack vending machine. Rusted through, totally useless, and full of sealed bags of food that are probably dust by now. It's an odd, comically grim thing to still exist here. Certainly time picks no favourites in what to preserve and what to destroy, but seeing millennia old brand names staring her in the face is certainly a trip. It's when she actually approaches that her particular brand of spectrum vision picks up what typical Machine senses wouldnt": the vending machine, of all things, appears to be . . . the best way to put it is 'magically warded'.
Iria Animal life being so high? Not surprising considering humans don't really live here anymore. Not to mention, it seems the machines don't care for meat or anything like that. Speaking of which, there are no signs of the machines around here for the time being. Good, because Iria doesn't feel like fighting right now. This is more of a search and rescue operation, and Iria doesn't want to have to get her adrenaline pumping too much if she can help it.

With the others already spreading out, Iria attempts to move out as well and look for any possible clues. She uses her binoculars briefly to give herself a better idea of what the general area is like. It's not long before she spots the radio towers and frowns a little as she looks at them. Something seems off about them, but she can't figure out what it is.

"No time like the present," Iria says to herself as she slowly approaches, wanting to get a better look at them up close. At the same time, she's drawn her pistol and is moving with extreme caution.
Kyoko Takada     Alpha-39 finds something. It's oddly intact, considering the state that literally every other sign of civilization is in, which already makes it suspicious. What her mask's sensors are showing is far, far stranger. She could try approaching it, or she could throw something into its vicinity, either of which could set off what's likely a defensive measure and the reason nothing has overtaken it.
    Instead, she stalks around at a cautious perimeter of the vending machine, looking for either of two things: First, a power line feeding into the machine. Either it has stand-alone power, or it's on a grid, and she's yet to see the thermals to indicate such. Second, humanoid tracks. If there's a working vending machine, then perhaps there are people using it, for whatever purpose it was designed. There has to be some reason for this spot to be defended.
Mei Hatsume Mei takes note of the ancient, yet somehow functioning radio tower and approaches it cautiously, one hand resting on her hip harness while the others remains free to... Gesture! Emote! Do nothing else!

     Keeping a hand free is never a bad thing. "Interesting... Some of these might still be working. Let's see." Circling the tower, the inventor glances around briefly before reaching out towards one of the small devices to give it a gentle nudge. If it's fresh, it shouldn't fall apart by touch!

     Unless it's still old and decrepit. Then... Well, at least it probably wasn't useful for anything else. If it doesn't fall apart, though, she'll try to pick it off and see if it has any identifying markers: Stamps, seals, manufacturer names that might be visible somewhere else in the general area. Afterwards, she'll twist around to lob it towards Batou and the Tachikoma!
All-Seeing Eye Eye's vision sweeps over the buildings, peering through the walls as if they weren't there--his brow raises in slight surprise at what he finds. Sitting on the hoverbike properly, he leans forward, giving the throttle a squeeze and blasting off of the hilltop.

     Elites in the area will see the vehicle slowly descending over the skyline, purple jets of plasma leaving a trail of quickly disintegrating cinders. The rider's long black hair billows behind him in the wind, and his forest green poncho ripples around his svelte form like water beneath a propeller craft.

     As he approaches the city, he uses his 360 degree vision to spot lines of possible transit--a resistance would want to be able to move quickly and quietly, after all. If there are any train lines or subway tunnels, he'll try to locate a building with a cache that's nearby such a place. If not, it's really just whichever building is closest.

     In any case, once he arrives at the building, he dismounts the bike in the most dramatic way possible, deactivating it just in time to turn midair and vault over the closest window with just a foot or so for a margin of error. Inside the building, he investigates the emergency caches. If they're open, great! That means someone's been here.

     And if not, maybe there's something in and around the building that could be used to make contact with the resistance?
Tanya Degurechaff     Geese. At the apex of her flight, Tanya exchanges looks with airborne fowl, and she considers inwardly. Wasn't there a rather persistent joke, in some time or another, about the percieved 'evil' of geese? She feels like that might have been something she came across on the Internet a few times. She lets the flock go about its business and instead plucks the binoculars from the clip on her hip. These are lifted, and she peers across the city from above.

    High altitude wind disturbs the sprig of hair stubborning sticking up from her head as she identifies the complex from previous reports. So this must be the same area, then-- Or such complexes have been built in multiple places. She follows the road into the city, then skims across the skyline.

    Blink. Tanya lowers the binoculars, squinting. Lifting them again, she frowns. A hand moves to her throat: "Pixie to Dwarves. Recent artificial construction at the canyon. Investigating."

    The binoculars are lowered, clipped to her belt again, and the girl dips into an advance over the rooftops and treetops. No doubt wood would've disintegrated, especially in a load-bearing structure like this. It's the clearest sign of recent habitation she can see from up here. The best clue she could hope for.
Krusty     Until they have a solid lead with which to pursue, Krusty is content to simply wander the ruined city randomly. It may not be as focused or productive as some of the others, but the thing about focus is it tends to blind you to that which you're not looking for...

    ... Or maybe it's just an excuse to avoid doing any real work. So while the others scout and scan and fiddle to find what they seek, Krusty simply wanders. He walks down the overgrown streets, taking in the rather peaceful scenery. Sometimes you just have to stop and admire your surroundings.
Batou "Tachikoma, get in contact with Mei. I'd like for you to assist her with looking into the radio signal." Tachikoma whirs in response, reaching out with a cheery greeting to Mei.

"Greetings, Mei Hatsume! Tachikoma here to help you investigate. I can assist both physically and digitally!"

As Tachikoma is speaking, it has already launched off of the tree and landed with ease, following Mei.

Back to Batou, he watches All-Seeing Eye move forward, closer to the city. He jumps off himself, landing less delicately, but still safely, as he quickly sprints to keep up with Eye, his therm-optic camoflage engaging, quickly making him disappear but still causing greenery to brush aside as he tails the elite.

"On your 6, Eye! Let me know if you find anything of interest. Tachikoma is on the radio signal."

Tachikoma catches the smaller device, scanning and recording any emmissions from it, uploading to the Paladin stream.
Starbound Flotilla     Seft leaves the station running, keeping a holoscreen up near her as she heads out. The others begin to check around, first heading to where Tanya has found the structure, and moving to examine the structure itself.

"Wood. Improvised, but only technically."
"Use what you've got. Might have come locally, don't you think?"
"Pondering. If it's a resistance, they can't operate too openly."
"It must therefore not have been sourced from a great distance."
"Not like there's a shortage of wood around here. You see those trees?"
"Yeahyeah! Floran think... Trace treesss! Sssample, match wood, maybe can get direction of camp, or bearing on tracksss for follow, or sssomething like that!"

    The Flotilla seem to settle on what they're planning to do. Field Shaping is not just the act of shaping a field, it is, itself, the expertise in the shaping of fields; the Starbound Flotilla are certainly experts in construction, and that means they can match wood in existing structures against wood in local trees! While Biteblade, Seft, and Albert stick behind to examine the wood of the bridge Tanya found, George, Moonfin, and Pavo head out, checking the trees themselves with sampling drills! If they can find which small region of nearby trees was the one that the wood was taken from, they can ideally find the path taken by the Resistance to get to the bridge, and thus, a direction to go when seeking them out!
Ezekiel Gravez      Zeke reaches into his gun holster as livewires extend out from his wrist to interface with The Patriot. Lifting the heavy revolver from its rest, he brings it to bear as he sweeps the base of the ruins. He moves along the ruined streets watching Mei's back. The internals of the revolver cylinder glow with an azure tech, making it impossible to conceal in the open. He steps as lightly as he can, using the toe to heel method of walking quietly. "Whaddya think ya found?" He asks.

     From his left he hears a creak. With a subtle shift of his body he locates the source of the noise from under a sheet of metal which had been grown over it like the wild is want to do. Something shiny and blackish brown moves from within. With some effort and a poke of his boot, the corrugated metal sheet comes up from the ground and a cockroach the size of a large dog retreats into a deeper hole. The revolver is about to fire, but Zeke takes a deep breathe and relaxes his mind. "Clear." He says, as his aim drops.

     "All is good with you?" He asks.
A2     Stalking around the vending machine confirms a few things. One is that it obviously isn't used at all as a vending machine. The credit reader and dispensing flap are scrap by now, completely inaccessible. The internal light isn't on. Still, there are energy readings in it. They're so low-key that there's no way thermal vision would pick up anything significant, and could be easily assumed 'hooked up to a vestigial piece of power infrastructure that miraculously still works', or perhaps just happening to be solar powered, though the lack of any panels or wiring mean that it must becoming from a standalone source, and it would have to be /directly/ underground, since it isn't built into anything else. It seems like enough standing juice to power a high end computer, perhaps, or a powerful radio.

    The radio tower is junk, and in fact, actually dangerous to climb. The new additions are at the top, in the 'crow's nest' where the transmission controls are, barely big enough for two people. The mast is scrap and the delicate receiving wires have corroded through aeons ago, but small, slick, ultramodern devices have been nestled into the old junk circuits and welded to obsolete boards, hidden in tangles of ancient and dusty wires like surveillance bugs, where their signatures are well-hidden. They look like tight-beam transmitters, aimed at one specific, static point. That means they're nearly impossible to intercept except by dumb luck, but that they can only send and receive signals to and from one, unmoving place.

    There are no marks or stamps on those; they look like they've been hand made by a skilled gadgeteer. Scanning it determines that it is used intermittently every few weeks, and was last used two months ago. It doesn't appear to be the YoRHa handler's though, since it doesn't link to space. There appears to be a companion device somewhere in a nearby college complex, perhaps a mile or two south of the bridge.

    There are no trains, subways, really useful roads, or anything of the sort though. That kind of transport infrastructure would probably be immediately destroyed and overtaken by the Machines, and it is quite probable the Resistance absolutely does not have the ability to defend those kinds of static assets when anything larger than small cells draws the enemy's attention. Either all travel is being done by foot, or by small, perhaps vehicles, much like the Exalted's own bike. Given A2's insane speed and mobility, even lesser models might not have that much of a difficult time getting around without.

    The caches are somewhat interesting. Being incredibly plain and unassuming boxes, they only /look/ rusted and ancient superficially, turning out to instead be a patina on extremely durable composites that block 'Eye's scanning vision (no doubt intentionally designed to obstruct the piercing gaze of Machine scouts as well). They're ostensibly 'chained shut', but the locks are, upon a cursory check, purely digital. A passcode, keycard, or sophisticated hacking suite, would be needed to open them. They're also very heavy. Obviously they aren't going to be filled with food and medical supplies, so perhaps weapons or spare parts? One-shot transmitters or deployable shelters? Who knows. There are strong signs that one particular cache, in the basement section of a large skyscraper, reached through a fallen elevator, has been recently checked, though not accessed, so likely by a routine patrol, which means they'd have to come from somewhere relatively close.
A2     The bridge is pretty blatantly newish construction, as Tanya theorizes. It's been done with primitive tools and by humans or extremely humanoid individuals. No doubt construction using wood and hammers doesn't tip off any scanners or scouts in the area, and aerial recon drones would blithely ignore it. It's been well-maintained too, which means footbound travelers need it, and frequently use it, to cross from the mall-side to the city-side. Basic sampling tells the Flotilla that it is, in fact, locally sourced, and thus definitely likely to be completely ignored by Machines that don't give two shits about trees. An oddity that they discover though is that every tree they drill has enormous rings, easily three times as thick as anything on Earth. Considering these are supposed to correspond to growing seasons, it's like this part of the world gets all-year summer, or all-year daylight. Are they actually at one of the poles?

    Below the bridge, the river drops into a massive waterfall, at the bottom of which Tanya can see piles and piles of scrap, much of which appears to be Machine corpses; the detritus of a semi-recent battle, perhaps, in which a wandering battalion was cleverly wiped off the map before they could report the cell's location. They're quite capable guerrillas, at the count of dead robots rusting away in the mist. There is also a visible 'trail' of sorts, simply where the grass has worn thin and the dirt has been packed down, though a number of animals seem to use it as well, so it could be anything.

    Krusty wanders around basically at random. This is as good of a strategy as any at this point. For a long time, he doesn't encounter anything more than the others, save extremely /large/ animals that doesn't even remotely spook in his presence, likely having /no idea/ what he is, if humans really haven't walked this planet in thousands of years. What he does eventually stumble on is far different, however.

    A pair of Machines. Small humanoid models, a head shorter than him. They look even older and more superficially rusted than those in the factory, streaked with centuries of weather. They creepy, toy-like construction seems to work well enough, but neither of them appear to be armed at all, nor do they seem to be actively working together. Their button eyes glow a shade of pale amber instead of luminous red like all the others, which seems to correspond to having no scanners or sensors engaged at all, as if colour coded to mean 'standby' or 'conservation mode' or 'low alert'. They don't really . . . do much, though. They don't patrol or stand watch. They wander around, just like he is. Sometimes in circles, even. Tottering about, staring at ruins, contemplating bushes for upwards of twenty minutes at a time, and just kind of creepily staring into space like lost autistic children.
Mei Hatsume Between the cyborg cowboy and the mechanical spider, Mei's starting to feel just a tad overwhelmed on what to focus on first! She's worked with the Tachikoma before and even dashed about alongside it, but Ezekiel's got that new and shiny air to him (even if his clothes may not be as new). Then there's all the ancient and not-so-ancient tech from an Earth that's similar-yet-different to her own, and...

     It's going to be pretty hard for Mei to really focus properly. At least climbing the tower to get one of the devices for the Tachikoma helps take her mind off just ogling gear for ideas, and passing the device off means she has one less thing to worry about! "A transmitter, maybe. Or... Soem sort of amplifier?" She guesses while shrugging lightly towards Zeke, glancing upwards after a moment to draw a line in the air with her finger.

     "That'd be my guess, anyway. Looks like these were aimed somewhere specific, and they're /really/ small. Efficiently designed, too, depending on what they could pack in there. A radio's one thing, but to do it with so many modular parts and still have it all working..." She doesn't even notice Ezekiel catching wind of something moving at first as she's preoccupied with rambling about engineering and design, going on for a good minute or so. The sight of the massive cockroach does get her to quiet down and stare at the thing distastefully as it skitters away. "... Huh. Big insects, too. That makes sense, if people aren't around to stomp on them any more. Maybe the documentaries missed a few things..."

     A pause. "... Or maybe they just didn't want to scare off viewers?"
Kyoko Takada     Confoundingly, Alpha-39 fails to find any tracks. Maybe there's just no one here at all. She could look elsewhere, but it's a big wilderness, even with "south of the bridge" to narrow it down.
    The low energy reading eventually justifies her taking a closer look, along with the open terrain. If this was a mechanical trap, it likely would have been triggered by something by now, if no one is coming by to regularly reset it. If it's instead set up to maintain the cover of an antiquated vending machine, then it should probably just do nothing. But if that's the case... what's this sense of a defensive matrix that she's seeing?
    She skips a rock toward the machine, first. If it doesn't trip any wires, she'll follow up with trying to interact with the thing directly. It doesn't look like it should work, and it wouldn't make sense for it to work, but if it won't give her a bag of preserved potato chips, maybe she can find a seam to lever open and find what this thing is actually for.
Iria Fortunately, Iria's got the usage of her grappling hook to be able to get up to the top of the radio tower. Even though it's a bit high up, Iria doesn't mind heights. She uses this to look around in the general area, since technology isn't exactly her forte. She doesn't seem to notice much at first, although the view is rather nice. Too bad she's not here for sightseeing or things like that.

Then Iria gets a glimpse of the cockroach as well and she goes wide-eyed. "What in the hell?" She scowls and makes a face. "Just what we need, giant cucarachas," She says sarcastically. "Too bad I didn't bring pesticide with me." A pause. "Still, I have to wonder if those are entirely machine or maybe there's more to them than just that?"
All-Seeing Eye "Hmm." All-Seeing Eye sits perched atop the only cache he's found so far that appears to have been tampered with. He hasn't bothered to attempt opening it, although without some new information he might just try.

     Crossing his legs, he reaches into his poncho, produces his phone, and snaps a selfie, smiling. He types in a quick caption, sharing it across the communications network to keep the others apprised of his findings.

     Hopping off of the cache, he paces around the room, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Allowing his features to darken with a frown for just a moment, he snaps his fingers once inspiration takes him. "Perhaps there's more," he says with satisfaction as he focuses his attention on the cache behind him.

     Eye magnifies his vision and begins peeking through the walls and the floor, looking for any more "gaps" where his vision can't penetrate. It's a bit of a leap in logic, but perhaps there's an entrance somewhere nearby that's also made of this composite material? He also listens for drafts that might be caused by certain additions or modifications to the building's architecture.
Krusty     Krusty doesn't take any particular actions against the animals he comes across. Although it's rather refreshing that they don't just up and run away, allowing him a good look at them. Their size is impressive, compared to most from his old world... A reminder of earlier days, before he found himself whisked away to somewhere else.

    As Krusty turns a corner he spots the two machines. Initially surprised at the sight, not yet being familiar with this world's artificial inhabitants (beyond A2), Krusty stares for a moment. But as reason regains control, Krusty quickly ducks back around the corner.

    Pressing his heavy armour up against the concrete wall, Krusty peers around the corner again. Raise a hand to his ear he reports, "I've spotted two machines." He watches for a short while, trying to determine whether they're hostile and what their purpose might be. However after a little he can't really conclude anything. Their actions are a little unclear. He continues, "Hmmm... They don't seem to be doing much. Just idling by the look of it."

    Continuing to watch, Krusty's free hand is hovering behind his back, close to grabbing his axe. However, he can't be entirely sure that taking them out is the correct course of action. Not enough information. A-39 of course asks the question, Krusty responding, "They're not exactly obviously hostile. If anything they seem... Broken? Just wandering around, not doing anything specific." Of course, hacking them is out of the question, at least for him, "A bit outside my skill set."

    Well, Krusty's not going to learn anything just by hiding. So he steps out from behind his cover, beginning to walk towards the strange machines. He's anticipated a few ways this might play out, and none are really all that bad for him. So the risk of revealing his presence to them is minimal. Now to see how they respond.
Tanya Degurechaff     Tanya circles over the bridge for a few moments, watching the Flotilla work on identifying the bridge's origin. This could be useful-- but far more useful is that it is here at all. A sure sign that this 'resistance' must be in the area. After a moment, she crosses over to the opposite side, circling there while examining the ground for signs of recent use and what direction they may have been going. The wreckage at the bottom of the gorge was likewise noted, though.

    Tanya comes to a stop, pulling her binoculars back up. Using their magnification, she peers down at the wreckage in more detail, moving over the mangled machines, then back. After a moment, she locates and then follows the beaten path through her lenses.

    "...Hmm..." Lowering the binoculars, she pinches the mic at her throat, "Pathway in the gorge. Keep investigating up here, I'll check below."

    And like that, the young Major descends into the canyon.
Starbound Flotilla     Alright, Starbound ought to have this figured out. "Copy. Checking southwards along potential routes." Albert sends back over the radio to Tanya. The Flotilla is far from tracking experts -- even Biteblade, the hunter -- but they have other means available. First, check tracks and paths. undoubtedly a number snake away from the location, so they split where appropriate. Then, check for treestumps that show the work of their much-familiar construction. Where that might not work, pulse ground scanners or even dig right into the ground itself, searching for the open spaces or lost wood made by tree roots of long-used-up trees. This should designate /which/ path to focus on.

    From there, they hope, they can head out and follow that one particular track until they're able to find another clue, another sign of cleared trees that were used in the bridge, or some other kind of point of past activity to investigate... If they aren't able to find the camp itself, anyway.
Batou Tachikoma whirs in agreement with Mei. "Miss Hatsume, you're right! These are simple antennae, and I recommend we find the source of this signal! Mr. Ezekiel, do you agree with this proposal?"

As Tachikoma speaks, it is already looking around after seeing that giant cockroach, finding itself shuddering. It sends off the image of the giant cockroach to Batou and Eye, but also to its own group of Tachikomas to react and examine.

----------

Batou watches Eye take a "sell-fee," confused by this use of technology for such things, but dismisses the message on the application that Eye made him download for "missions".

Batou looks at the false patina on the box, and chuckles.

"You know, I could bust that thing open with some 'manual overriding'," he says, stretching. With that, he looks at the corner of the box, and attempts to pry up the edge, his cybernetically enhanced body tensing with the strain.
Ezekiel Gravez      Zeke responds to Iria with a emphatic shrug "Impossible ta tell without opening 'er up. Knowin' what we know thus far, M' havin a few doubts on that." He also looks up to see Mei doing her climb. She seemed to be working on things on her own end, but didn't appear in danger. That was a good thing, really. And then, the comm crackled to life, with reports.

     Zeke speaks into the comm, "What's your position? Do you need backup?" He asks, giving Iria a hopeful look. "Sounds like we got contacts. You wanna watch this one, or get your mosey on and check out the action?"

     Tachikoma's address takes him a little off guard. Having not been introduced to this thing, It certainly took him a moment to 'get it'. "I say we do all the analysis we can, but things might get a wee dicey 'ere in a moment if there's combat. How fast can do you get a fixin on it?" His focus seems divided now, but he tries to keep it organized.
A2     Chucking rocks at the vending machine has a probably-expected effect, and a probably-unexpected effect. The pebble gets within about 5 feet at high velocity before it is stopped short by a perfectly spherical barrier flashing into existence, comprised of translucent interlocking hexagons that look incredibly sci-fi and pulse with an electronic reverb, but register as distinctly magical. The pebble isn't fried or damaged in any way, but stopped cold in an instant. The second event is that the vending machine instantly sends off a powerful communications burst, firing off an encrypted message via tight beam to the radio tower, and then a more powerful laser pulse straight upward, likely to a waiting satellite. No defenses of any kind come online, probably impossible to disguise and maintain, but the barrier looks extremely strong; enough to heavily fortify whatever critical machinery is disguised as a vending machine from heavy firepower.

    That means those people at the radio tower and currently paying close attention to the actual network itself (since obviously the device doesn't have any kind of blinking lights or moving parts that show it's working) suddenly get a burst transmission centered right on them, and then the machinery they're looking at fires it off again, as they'd expect, straight into the college compound on the south side of the bridge. It isn't terrible difficult to put two plus two together at this point. There have been enough indicators gathered up by now. If at least one of the Flotilla is still manning the area scanner, they'd pick up the burst too.

    Dipping low under the bridge and down the considerable drop takes Tanya to the bottom without incident. No surprises. What she encounters at the bottom is a significant pile of scrap. A number of the Machines look like they fell, as if the ground had given way, they'd been thrown or driven off the edge, or somehow tricked into going the wrong way, as they've been cracked or skewered on impact. Some are even full of shrapnel that fell in after them, including one especially huge model that lies rusting in the waterfall pool like a dead mammoth riddle with spears. Most appear to have been shot, however, lined up against the edges as if trying to climb out. Scouting around, she can find an actual entrance into the gorge from the far end that has been purposefully blocked off. Specifically, huge compacted cubes of scrap, no doubt from other dead Machines, have been lugged into place and dropped into the gap, making for a massive and incredibly thick surprise obstruction. They were probably trapped in here and then gunned down like fish in a barrel.
A2     'Eye does not immediately find any other secret hatches or panels designed to be hidden from scanning. The corner they're in looks very much like a secret drop or bolthole rather than a panic room or the like. Batou digs into the box and just starts ripping it apart instead. It is actually /incredibly/ difficult. There's no crazy warding going on like at the vending machine, but the thing is extremely sturdy; certainly military-grade. After a lot of yanking and pulling with a full cyborg body however, Batou manages to peel the corner of the lid off to the point he can reach an arm in.

    What he discovers is certainly an emergency supply stash, but odd one. There is an extremely powerful, battery-powered communicator inside probably meant to be an emergency radio, probably with a tremendous range. There are many small canisters of unidentifiable gels and fluids, and what look like a number of small data drives or chips. As well, there are a pair of honest to god swords, one smaller and one larger. 'Eye scanning /those/ finds that the pair are made of the extremely advanced materials he's expecting, and have minute power sources in them, for whatever reason. They aren't stuff a guerrilla resistance would keep around (especially since they seem to prefer firearms). They're clearly top of the line supplies for a YoRHa operative. The missing contact. They didn't unlock their emergency cache, so . . . ?

    Following the obvious line of markers by now, the adventuring members of the Flotilla are the first to finally stumble upon a trail that seems like it's seen some obvious usage recently, and in carrying heavy equipment. It goes through a circuitous, winding path through multiple layers of partly broken campus buildings, through odd backdoors and alleys and under giant roots and branches. It isn't actually difficult to follow though, nor is the end destination especially concealed, per-se. When they get to the pound that they can actually hear sound, and detect heat sources, it seems pretty obvious that they've found at least a portion of their planetside Resistance cell, setting up shop in the sprawling ruins of an ancient place of learning, now mostly useful for its dense construction and extremely limited access to a well fortified courtyard.
A2     It's a little strange, but only a little. It's not visible from the air due to the tree cover, and the amount of construction is too thick to scan through from the outside. The way in isn't obvious, and they've covered their tracks a lot. At the same time though, it wouldn't stay hidden for long --perhaps a few years-- from someone determined to scour the entire area, and with the resources to do so. Considering what they're lead to believe about the Machines, they /could/ have tracked this place down by now. Either it's a nomadic group that relocates from area to area, or the Machines in this part of the country . . . aren't very well organized.

    Previous records have shown them seamlessly assembling in the hundreds of thousands, and shooting down aircraft with over-the-horizon weaponry, so it seems odd that they wouldn't have stomped out a base that could have been rooted out by a competent human general, given time and resources. These are considerations that several of the Flotilla would probably connect dots to very quickly.

    Krusty can probably verify something is wrong with the Machines in this area on his own easily enough. When he walks right out of cover, neither of the wandering automatons even notice him, continuing to totter around like broken wind-up dolls (which they sort of look the part of). It isn't until he approaches very close to one that it finally takes stock of him, whereupon the robot turns its head and pauses for a full second, before its eyes flicker back to that more typical shade of bright red, and a distorted thrumming sizzles from its speakers.

    After that weird pause, it seems to regain some semblance of combat programming, as it immediately charges at him on its rusty legs and, in lieu of a real weapon, swings a couple of oddly adept punches at him, each of which have a human level period of wind-up, but which fire off incredibly hard once they get going, packing a surprisingly extreme amount of power in its spindly limbs. Strangely, the other one remains /completely oblivious/. Not only does it fail to connect to the first machine and establish a tactical network like all the others do, it fails to even pay attention to a fight breaking out fifty feet away from it. It just keeps staring into space with dull yellow eyes.
Mei Hatsume If there were any doubts as to how effective the device would be after being removed from the tower, they probably didn't exist for much longer once the fresh transmission comes bursting out of it. Mei even jumps a bit as the surprise, but seems more pleased than annoyed once that initial shock wears off.

     "No indications until it's activated... Hmm. That probably wouldn't pass any sort of compliance testing back home, but if they wanted to keep it hidden, then...!" The inventor chuckles, and then she gets ready to ride on the Tachikoma with her harness' holes aimed outwards just in case drive-by wires are needed!

     "Shall we follow that signal? If the camp is still up and running, we could ask them about the contact. And if it's gone, then..." Mei pauses, glancing over at Ezekiel while stroking her chin. "... Say. How good are you at moving around? There's no telling how stable some of the ground around here is, so!"

     And so, without waiting for an answer one way or the other, she whips a harness out of her backpack that looks similar to her own and offers it to the cyborg gunman with a broad grin. "Why not give this a test run~?"
Krusty     Krusty stops his approach as the first robot seems to react to him. Naturally on alert for a potential attack, he watches as the machine powers up and launches its assault. He avoids the first punch just barely, but the second catches him. There's a loud *CLANG* as the metal robot punches his metal armour with enough force to knock him off balance.

    Stumbling back several steps, Krusty takes a moment to recover. He then looks in surprise at the strength of the robot, adjusting his glasses, "Interesting." He turns to the side for a moment, once more moving his hand to his ear, "One of the machines turned hostile when I approached. The other is still passive." He reaches behind to retrieve his weapon, pulling the large two-handed axe out, continuing, "I'm going to deal with the hostile one."

    Turning back to the robot, Krusty raises his weapon in preparation, but pauses for a moment. Just how would one take down a robot cleanly? Well... Maybe... He replies to A-39 and Mei, "I'll do what I can." Shifting his stance a little, Krusty dashes forward and swings the large weapon. As he attacks he aims for the machine's arms and legs, attempting to separate them from the main body and hopefully render the robot harmless without actually destroying it too thoroughly.
Batou Tachikoma does a little wiggle, and giggles. "Looks like everyone is on board! I'm so excited to-" Tachikoma stops suddenly as soon as the signal burst comes through, almost as if its software suddenly crashed. A moment later the servos give out and Tachikoma thunks heavily to the ground, completely shut down.

Moments before the signal comes through, Batou is pulling out the swords, inspecting them. "Hey, Eye, look at these, awful weird for an operative out here to have against machi-" In the instant the communication burst comes through, both Batou is frozen as well, with only a grunt given off before his systems shut down as well and he unceremoniously falls to the ground, cracking the already damaged pavement.

Eye can only hear static through the comms of Batou, but his voice is comes back after only a moment, with Batou cursing.

"Urgh, damn EMPs... hold on Eye, I'll reboot in a moment.
Tanya Degurechaff     Tanya does not touch down. No, there's too much risk of mis-stepping and getting stuck with all this mangled scrap metal, or jostling something and activating a self-destruct or ancient machine weapon. No, none of that will be acceptable. But a closer look does confirm what appears to have happened with the robots down here. Glowing eyes narrow slightly. They were tricked. Or driven in. And then destroyed from the canyon walls above.

    A little smirk crosses Tanya's face as she floats along the canyon's lower levels. Much like cavemen drove mammoths off cliffs, then threw rocks or spears down on them...

    She coasts to a stop when a bend puts her face to face with a wall of compressed metal blocks, and she looks up the face with that same smirk. After a moment, the girl ascends. Yes, this absolutely was used as a trap for machines. A primitive and simple trap, which has her wondering just what these machines are capable of, tactically, that even made them a threat in the first place. Especially given the description she's been hearing from Krusty and his encounter with live specimens. Are they really that derpy-- or are these ones just weather-beaten and broken down as an excuse for stupidity?

    At the top of the wall, Tanya continues to ascend, turning to look back at the city, scanning for the presence of her fellow Concord explorers. Apparently, something even more interesting has been found.
Ezekiel Gravez Zeke is showered with electrical impulses that sends his cyberdeck into panick mode. A loud crackle followed by an electronic wail crashes Zeke's headware, causing the earpeice to pop and sizzle. Despite his entire cybernetic and symbiant system being EMP hardened, the rest of his standalone tech was not as compliant. He removes the junked headset, and tosses it on the ground as he instinctively tries to defend his remaining sense of hearing in a violent twitch. "SHIT!" He cries out, swapping gun hands so he can stick a pinky inside his inner ear.

     After a minute or so wrestling with the sense deadening, he looks up to see if Mei is still safe. Apparently she is no more worse for wear. However, the screen of hexagonal field definitely got a fraction of a second of his attention. Looking back at his cyberdeck, he swaps gun hands again and settles the pistol into its holster while he checks the cyberdeck feed. WARNIGN EMP PULSE DETECTED. ELECTRICAL FIELD DETECTED. UNKNOWN TRAMSMISSION DETECTED. The heads up display is alive with technical equations describing everything from the form of energy it was down to the details of where it came from.

     There was another form of Technowizardry afoot here, and Zeke was instantly upon it like a desperate nanohacker.

     Program language was forming as quickly as he was thinking it. A spectral data analysis devours the reading and performs quick projections filled with data which fills the flashing screen. Subvocal commands direct to the cyberdeck and the hacking suite comes to life just as Tachikoma comes crashing into the ground right beside him. There is more movement off to one side as the bystanding cockroach gets even more anxious and disappears into its tunnel. "Crap. Working fast. More holoscreen flashes and moving vids appear from the projection which azure blue marquee scroll indicate it wasn't an attack per se, but more likely a defensive reaction to intrusion. The pulse would ruin normal machinery and even basic cybernets. Thank the creator for Nanotech!

     "Mei, are you okay? We may need to move outta here, like fast!"
Iria Iria doesn't quite get the radio burst signal, so she doesn't feel it or anything like that. Feeling frustrated mostly, she drops to the ground and sighs. Then she notices Mei isn't doing so well and she rushes over to check on the fallen girl. "Are you all right? What happened?" Iria wouldn't know about the radio burst because she didn't sense it at all...

All she's got right now is the fact that she's drawing a blank on things in general.
Kyoko Takada     Alpha-39 takes a minute to see if that shield drops it again. She doesn't want to try forcing her way through the odd thing, but if it shuts off, she'll try moving something slowly through it, to see if it sets off again. Either way, she doesn't expect to learn much more here. She's got a better deal over where Krusty is, and more in line with her objectives than mere curiosity.
    She leaves the vending machine, taking note of its location, and makes her way over to where Krusty wandered off to. She has a reasonable level of faith in his ability to take down one or two enemies while keeping most of their parts intact. If nothing else, he'd mentioned a second machine being in the area, and if the first one explodes she'll still have the second to work on.
    She moves at a good clip, avoiding flashy movements but no longer treating this as actively hostile territory, given how many others are working without molestation in the area. Once she arrives, assuming Krusty was successful, she'll start the can-opener operation with her knives. If what she heard is true, these machines carry the same kind of parts some of the androids need to keep themselves running, as weird as that sounds. There could very well be something of value to her, too.
Starbound Flotilla     Biteblade swiftly ascends to the top of one of the nearest buildings using her grappling hook and her various rocketboosts, and tries to flag Tanya down! "Tiny major friiiieeeeeend!" She calls out, flicking a directed light in her direction to catch her attention without drawing too much machine focus. "Over here! Over here! Floran found! Floran isss great geniusss!" Normally they'd fire a flare or something, but better to keep things ostensibly on the down-low, around allies!

    The rest of the Flotilla are assembling around the way in here... Seft is kept in the rear of the group for obvious reasons, but the rest figure George of all people will be among the best of them to head in first, at least as far as not getting SHOT goes. He jams a button at his shoulder, retracting his EVA hardsuit helmet, and heads in towards what they vaguely suspect is the Resistance area... Armor up, but weapons holstered. YoRHa didn't try to blow them up a second time, but that doesn't mean they have too much trust for the local androids quiiiite yet. Tanya's the one with the most motivation here, though, and they're far from intending to get in her way; they'll let her make all the first impression she wants, if she heads in too.
All-Seeing Eye Eye can't see any signs that this place connects to any larger base, but he can certainly see and hear Batou just wrenching part of the cache off. The moment it happens, his face lights up, and without even turning to face the other cyborg, he offers a word of praise.

     "Excellent work, comrade!" The search for some kind of secret passage is put on hold, and he strides across the room to join Batou in looking through the supplies. For the most part, he keeps his hands to himself, giving his fellow Paladin a knowing smile when they find something that looks like a radio.

     What really catches his attention is the swords, which Batou of course agrees with. Giving a nod, he prepares a counterpoint, raising a finger only to level a concerned frown Batou's way. It turns into a smirk when Batou reveals it's not a life-threatening error. "Tragic," he says, kneeling beside the other Paladin to examine the swords.

     "In any case, you're right. Their material composition is similar to that of the container they were stored in, and the power sources suggest additional combat functions beside the obvious. I suspect YoRHa is, at the very least, arming the resistance, if not seeding their own operatives within it."

     The Exalt offers a hand to Batou, patiently waiting above him. The moment the cyborg is back online, he helps him to his feet. "Perhaps the person with the code to this chest is nearby, but, alas--" He puts his free hand on his forehead in faux, exaggerated despair. "No secret passages here." He smiles, wrinkling his nose at the cyborg and nodding backwards. "Shall we rendezvous with the others and see if they've had more luck?"
Batou Tachikoma whirs back online and stands up, its eyes spinning as it takes in the surroundings. "I'm back lady and gentleman! Shall we go?" Tachikoma leans down to allow either Zeke or Mei on with ease, and then takes off for the source of the signal, this time with the network separated from it and Batou, being laughed at over the net by its fellow Tachikoma.

----------

Batou accepts the help up from Eye, and examines the swords. "These are unusual, so I'm taking them with us." Batou says, looting the rest of the contents of the chest. "I know whips are more of your thing, but I've got a weird feeling about these swords being left for whoever comes by to see a looted chest..."

Batou nods, putting the swords onto his back. "Yes, let's head out."

Batou activates his therm-optic camoflage, and takes off for the college to meet with Tachikoma and the crew.
A2     Krusty is not immediately pressured in a critically menacing way by the Machine on the attack. It packs a punch, but it's just one unit, thus not a real threat, considering their greatest strength is absurd numbers of massive intelligent coordination. His axe instantly lops off one arm, then the other, and then chops both of its legs out from under it, causing it to plop to the floor and leaving it as effectively a helpless cylinder with a head. It looks around wildly for several seconds, head rolling this way and that, before turning back to Krusty, and abruptly exploding.

    That's it. It just . . . blows up. Just like that. A charge of some kind goes off from within, and the surrounding area is showered with little bits of scrap. It isn't an /offensive/ charge, in that most of the shrapnel is scattered upwards and randomly, and the detonation isn't very big. The other Machine still pays /zero/ attention, even when little bits of his comrade plink off his head, rarely larger than a bolt, gear, or socket.

    When A-39 arrives, she'll recognize the remains for what they are: the result of a sabotage, or more likely a materiel denial, charge, meant to thoroughly obliterate all useful parts into salvage that later Machines can collect and reprocess in their massive factory complexes, but which the Androids can only make highly limited use out of, skewing attrition tactics hugely in their favour. She finds that the power source is utterly consumed (likely being the source of the explosion in the first place) and whatever its 'brains' are have been scrapped too, denying data extraction as well.

    A number of mundane components, such as wires and pneumatics, can be picked up, as well as two particular gizmos. One piece of machinery, no bigger than her palm, is so incredibly convoluted and Rube-Goldberg-esque there's no way to even guess what it's for. The other, about the same size, is so rock simple that it's just as difficult to guess how it could possibly be useful. Even if they look like human toys, there certainly weren't human hands behind designing them, making the alien story seem pretty plausible right about now.

    Before she leaves, the vending machine stays locked down behind its barrier for a while, then emits an active scan around the area. Clearly detecting no Machine Lifeforms, it eventually lets it down. She can approach it and even touch it if she likes, where if she's thorough, she can find a hidden keypad, but with no knowledge of what to input, it's mostly a curiosity for the time being. For the others unlucky enough to be hit with the burst, at least one person is on the case of figuring out what it was. It came and went too suddenly to really intercept it, but Ezekiel taking his tools to it can at least ascertain its nature: an alert signal that the machine has been attacked, along with detailed data about how, where, and by what. It's formatted to be networked to a lot of other communicators, and has an authentication signature that indicates it's probably one of many, and that they have tabs closely kept on them.

    As far as All-Seeing Eye can analyze the cache, a very small (but still significant) degree of the equipment has the same pseudo-magical signature as he had picked up from the YoRHa units themselves back in the Bunker, in the sense that they are clearly designed to interface with, or attune to them. What functions they might have aren't super clear. Most of the canisters look like they could be drugs of some kind were they meant for humans. The communicator is definitely powerful enough to reach orbit with a huge bandwidth, but probably only for very short periods. Nothing untoward happens when Batou just takes them, though he will find that the blades are actually extremely heavy; impossible to use with any practicality for an average human. He could vaguely class them as fit for chopping up armoured cyborgs, without much background.
A2     Several people congregate at the final trace point of the various environmental markers and activity traces found so far. Deep into the college complex, basically in its main 'courtyard', the Flotilla are indeed the first to stumble into habitation; what could accurately be described as a camp. Though compact, efficient, and well-organized, it doesn't have an incredibly military air, but a rather rustic, almost homey one instead, and is surprisingly heavily populated. The communal chatter, as well as the mixed sounds of hammering, ratcheting, hauling, and typing, contribute to an overall pleasant backdrop of business.

    Far from YoRHa's stark designer aesthetic, accommodations here are set up with whatever is available. The building is heavily used for storage space, as well as what amount to 'personal dwellings', but the camp is just as much made up of tents and work shelters of tarp, prefab frames, and even wood and cloth. A rather large generator has been set up at one end, and powers a spread of much more advanced machinery, including a tactical map table, several computer terminals, charging ports, diagnostics stations, and racks of energy weapons (though many empty spots are rather telling), but in most places, people sit out on rugs or folding chairs and work with wrenches, spanners, arc welders, and more rugged tools.

    A area cut off by meshed fencing closes off a compact loading and storage area filled with tremendous stacks of massive, hermetically sealed crates which are clearly more supplies than this camp could use in decades, being moved to and fro by work crews. An area largely shielded by plastic screens is quite clearly something like a 'sick bay', with stretchers and privacy sheets and everything. There are beds and sleeping bags around, and even a campfire a few people are roasting meat over, but even cursory inspection can tell that a lot of it is for show. There is no medical equipment whatsoever in the infirmary --only a wide variety of fine mechanical tools-- and food and medicine appear nowhere in any of the stockpiles.

    The people themselves are a far, far cry from YoRHa as well. Rather than being surrounded by uncannily beautiful women who conduct themselves as silent, graceful, eerily similar dolls, wearing odd gothic military fashion and blindfolds, the people here are . . . normal. Both sexes are present, as well as a range of ages from ostensibly 18 to 40. There are a multitude of body types, from barrel-chested strongmen to those who'd look better suited to an office, and even a variety of 'ethnicities'. They wear practical work clothes with some personal effects here and there such as hand-woven ponchos, bead necklaces, or actual leather gloves, and the projects they're working on encompass things like radio equipment, vehicle fueling, or stripping and maintaining more familiar kinds of weaponry.

    It's hard to keep in mind that every single one of these people is metal on the inside. They're so lifelike. Social, even. It'd be so easy to forget were there not the odd detail like two men carrying a crate that must weigh a solid ton between them, or a woman taking a screwdriver and wire cutter to her shin.