Scene #6706: SiaT: Faultlines

Owner	Pose
Septette Arcubielle	The miners' base rests in a winding cavern of gray asteroid rock, half natural, half roughly carved. The haphazard, jury-rigged industrial teleporter pad is isolated in a small chamber behind several metal doors set into the stone, with spray-painted circles and illegible safety warnings surrounding it. Welded metal stairs made of spare sheet metal descend steeply from there into the makeshift compound below. From the vantage point of the staircase, one can see at least a dozen one-story buildings lit by electric mining torches and the dull purple glow of raw crystal Erchius. The headquarters compound is built from equal parts sleek Letheia pre-fab materials, and rude metal and stone assembled with exacting professionalism and a total disregard for aesthetic. Without a fear of weather down here, roofs are virtually vestigial, so many of the less-secure buildings are open-air, showing obscure engineering projects or depots of spare parts and scrap. Metal pipes and black wires tap parasitically into the city above, then snake down from the cavern's roof to the various scrap buildings like trailing vines from a rainforest canopy. There are maybe seventy people here all told, including- those with sharp eyes and sharp memories might notice- all of those who were rescued (and the small handful who were "rescued") during the raid on the Rehabilitation Facility. A handful of people in mining gear stand guard or keep lookout in various positions, holding the weapons Staren gave them a bit more comfortably than when they were first handed out. Most of the people are busying themselves working on parasitic infrastructure, or repairing buildings from a recentish tremor, or fussing over hydroponic crops growing in a corner of the cavern. Those who aren't otherwise occupied will gather around the freshly-arrived Elites, pestering them with barely-restrained hero-worship and questions it wasn't previously opportune to ask. Do they really come from another universe, like Septette does? Is it true that Joshua's dead? Do they know what the NEOs look like under the shadows, really? Dave Grimes isn't anywhere to be seen- if he were, he'd probably be reining them in. For a meeting to discuss planning, you'd expect a better-organized welcoming committee.
Septette Arcubielle	Somebody else steps forward instead, a gangly miner with a creased expression. "Martin's getting worse," she says, and everyone else gets the air taken out of them, wordlessly chided by her relative seriousness. Martin- the guy who had the wooden sword, back in the Rehabilitation Facility. Come to think of it, wasn't she the one who rushed in to hug him? "We can still talk about our plans, for, uh, moving forward. But he's..." She pauses, looks for the words to describe it, and comes up empty. "Just, uh. Follow me, if you think you can help." For those who don't, there's no shortage of things to look and poke at. Screens around the cavern flicker between intercepted broadcasts, showing a mixture of half-comprehensible internal communications by the Flotilla, soothing propaganda videos, and CCTV footage from hijacked networks around the colony. The water supply goes through a complex boiling-evaporating purifier before going into the hydroponics, siphoning off trace amounts of what looks like blue pond scum and iridescent oily fluids from the colony's pipes. Off to the side, a smaller passage branches off; the erchius crystals around its entrance flicker yellow and red instead of remaining purple. And up ahead, where the miner's leading anyone who will follow, there's a makeshift field hospital. All the lights in the windows are out.
August Kohler	August is here. He's dressed in a thick coat as he approaches, and the group is swarmed. When they ask if Joshua is really dead, August grimly confirms. "Yes. I'm sorry." As they talk about Martin, August wasn't there last time. But he understands the gist. "I'm not sure what I can do to help, but I'll try." And so, August will join with the others.
Android 17	Seventeen holds his hands out, trying to calm people down as they are barraged with questions. It wasn't why they were here, but the fact that their normal handler wasn't around speaks volumes. He answers the question about the monsters first, "Butt ugly," he says, trying to ease the mood with a bit of humor. Until the woman, he recognized approaches them and informs them that one of the men they saved were getting worse. There was a breath taken, and a nod given from the cyborg before he followed her towards the makeshift hospital. Seventeen did not know what he could really do, but maybe things would be more revealed to them when they got there. Whatever the situation, it seems bad. Worse than it could not even be described by the leading lady. The various footages and propaganda videos get a passing glance. Reminded that he really wants to put George in a home.
Starbound Flotilla	Some folks glance at broadcasts. Not a bad idea! Moonfin is on one of them. He chatters away. Perhaps it's to put people more at ease about things with three eyes. "I'd like to read a message we received recently. 'Dear Moonfin Haruto. Why has Septette seen fit to confine us to the station? Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen.' Thank you for writing, Concerned. Of course, your question touches on one of the basic impulses of both nature and artificiality in life -- the compulsion, when confronted with discomfort, to flee. It is not even fear that creates this event. Many of us have seen the way an addict might flee rehabilitation, the way the scorned might flee love, the way the children might flee the casket of their grandparents." "The compulsion to flee at the moment of discomfort is a natural one, but that does not mean its outcome is for the best. That compulsion drove mankind away from the first light of fire. That compulsion pushed mankind to fear the oceans, the skies, and the stars each in turn. That compulsion pushed mankind away from every advancement it could have achieved. And, there are times when that compulsion must be fought, tooth and nail." "Please, for a moment, I ask that you thank our benefactor, for giving you some small respite from the overpowering force. With a single decision, she has not confined you -- rather, she has freed you from that faulty impulse. She has given you the chance, the first in a lifetime, to contribute to a Magnum Opus simply by living your lives in comfort. Let me assure you that the isolation of Nessos will be rescinded on the day that all have mastered themselves -- the day that each of us here at Nessos can prove the order is not needed at all." "That day of transformation, I have it on good authority, is close at hand." Other broadcasts continue... And many are more internally sensitive interceptions of key tactical information.
Staren	Staren's a heavily-armed robot again; he brings some more gear for the miners' stores this time. Ammo replenishment, both smart material ammo and plastic practice ammo, glasses that can be smartlinked to the guns that double as infrared binoculars. Police/security-tier non-environmental body armor for their fighters, the same his own combat drones were using earlier. When he sees one of the people "rescued" he looks away, awkwardly, but Staren is happy to respond to those with questions. "Yes. On my Earth it's 2407 AD, the apocalypse was three centuries ago, magic came back and we were connected to the multiverse, we're still recovering. Most Earths are 20 or 21st century, but there are all kinds of worlds out there. Usually they're inhabited primarily by humans or something that thinks like humans, though." "I saw part of one once, but I suspect they're all different and I'm not sure describing them to you is a good idea with Erchius around." When Martin's brought up, he can only look away again. For now, he checks on the other things. Like checking a sample of the 'purified' water to see if it actually removes what Septette put in it. When someone who looks like they're part of the planning comes by, he asks, "...What are your plans, if we successfully drive Septette off? Running this place yourselves? ...The place she was kidnapping people to... it looked like it was conditioning people so that the NEOs wouldn't affect them. Do you all agree that's a bad thing, or are you less certain?" Also, Moonfin's on TV. That's creepy. So, the captains really are part of it and not just Septette. That makes him even more inclined to trust that this is a good thing, but... why is Septette so reticent to explain? Then again, George seemed pretty open about things... Is Septette just bad at communicating stuff like this?
Starbound Flotilla	"Floran ran through entire hunting groundsss. Got many kill, but didn't find any Orderly gear. Why did you think they'd go to hunting ground?" "It is best to check every option." "We /know/ where they're going to go." "No, we don't, that's the point. We know who the crazy damnable thing is going after, we don't know /where/ that 'who' is. If we did, this whole thing would be stomped out already." "Then we find them. Next priority. Pull resources from Rehabilitation. I want every substation checked for spliced wires, I want every water pipe checked for siphons, I want every food crate weighed for smuggled-out food." "A substantial effort. We know the nature of this station from tip to tip, though. Perhaps it shall be effective in the inevitable sense." "Isss not bad idea. More mouthesss for feed, more food for need. How do we trace it? Hard to find little ssscavenger prey." "Don't need to. Just gotta starve 'em. They'll run back to us for the free comfort and safety. It's how you get power over people." "Doesssn't deal with firssst problem, though." "You're right. We still have no lead on them." "They were pissed as hell that their patients got taken, right?" "Why would they not be?" "Only makes sense that they'll just run the intruders down and skewer 'em if they hear. We don't need to chase them. Just let them operate however they want for a while." Further transmissions are more mundane, and less useful. It looks like the ORDERLY is now a rogue part of things, still pursuing the group with some single-minded rage. But more importantly, it looks like the Flotilla's upcoming tactic will be a long effort to strike with starvation against a group that suddenly has many mouthes to feed -- and then use their own considerable resources to bring them back into Septette's power more willingly. A problem worth dealing with.
Gideon Kaspar	"Wow . . . they're really enthusiastic." "That's because we saved the day and all." "Yeah!" "And now what does that make us?" "Big damn heroes!" "Ain't we just?" "Are you ever going to stop repeating that?" "Ah, I don't mind it. We're not on mission right now, so it's fine." The returning victorious party is four pretty girls greater than its net of zero before, and thus, in Gideon's mind, infinitely improved. Violet seems to want nothing to do with the crowd and answers the question of Joshua's death with brutal honesty, but Clover seems to be swamped trying to answer everyone at once, and Rose and Hazel are doing a bit that they've apparently been fixated on for since seeing it. Gideon maneuvers through the crowd like a red carpet bouncer, smoothly clearing the way while remaining a center of attention, assuring everyone that yes, they're from elsewhere, yes they've seen the NEOs, no they're definitely pretty scary, yes they're safe here for the moment, yes the drone factory is down, no they're not going back for the rehab center, no they weren't tailed, etc. He's also attended by his personal adjutant T-Doll, Krysanthe, who has kept dourly^5^5 professionally silent, and has been lugging around a heavy suitcase. At hearing the news about Martin, Gideon excuses himself from the crowd and motions his entourage along, wanting to see what became of the guy he'd already had reservations about removing from care, though he'd ultimately talked him into it. He stops by one of the Erchius crystals, flicking it a couple of times with his fingernail. Plink plink. "Isn't that a little dangerous?" he asks aloud. "Nothing about this entire place looks safe." Replies Krysanthe. "I wouldn't be surprised if it just collapsed on our heads right now." "Krys, we're in space, remember?"
Septette Arcubielle	The filtered water seems, to Staren's expert analysis, essentially pure. The miners are using a complex system of condensation to remove impurities and chemicals from it, sifting out by progressive steps anything that boils off faster or slower than water. It wouldn't be hard at all to sabotage the system by tweaking the heat settings a bit... but surely nobody here would do that. "It's clean," says a portly beared man in a high-vis jacket, when he notices Staren inspecting it. He seems very proud of that fact. "I dunno what gunk they're putting in it topside, but we've made damn sure to take it out." The man frowns a bit at Staren's questions, and puts one hand on his hip and the other on his beard. "I guess we'd want to bring Carcer back in," he replies. "That privateer, gave us protection before the tyrant came in and broke her up. Didn't have so 'luxurious' a life when she was taking her cut, but she kept us safe and let us run our own community. Truth is, we need somebody to do that, I think. We're sittin' on a goldmine, and this sector isn't safe, so..." He shrugs helplessly. "Miners have their own kind of safety training for NEOs. What to feel and how to feel it. Like a zen thing," he explains, a little more comfortable and expressive on that subject. "Normally that's enough. Whatever these new monsters are... I dunno. Even if she's training people better against 'em, isn't that just a solution to a problem she made?" Then Gideon draws his attention. He cups both hands around his face and shouts: "HEY! DON'T! ... Nah, just kiddin'. Don't put it in your mouth, it's fine." He laughs a little too hard at his own joke.
Septette Arcubielle	The miner with the worry-creased face pushes open the creaky door of the infirmary. It's remarkably clean, one of the better-assembled buildings. On the first floor, people with minor injuries from skirmishes or industrial mishaps- one has a cast over his leg, and that's about the worst of it. They're trying to get some shut-eye; it must be late by whatever clock the colony uses. The gangly woman walks past them in total silence, through another door, and down a flight of concrete stairs into the basement. Dark glass separates the patient's room from the staircase. Foreign writing, like some mixture of Korean and cuneiform, is smudged on the other side of the glass wall in white ointment. It's otherwise perfectly quiet and still in there. The woman rests her hand on the door's handle and looks back over her shoulder. "He's... he was doing fine, for a while. He was happy again. But the last few days, he's... started seeing things. And now he won't wake up." She pushes the door open. The smell of sweat oozes out into the corridor. Martin's lying in the only cot in the room, resting on his back with his eyes shut. His skin is pale, glistening with sweat that's soaking his gown and the sheets. He's breathing faster than anyone sleeping ought to, and his eyes are moving behind his eyelids like he's having a dream. A fluid IV is connected to his arm. "He was the one we rescued who'd been thawed the longest. So far, we're assuming it's... unique to Martin. But it's also possible that everyone else from the Facility will, uh, develop like this. If we don't find a way to fix it." On closer inspection, his whole body's bruised where it's lowest, like small amounts of blood are pooling under his skin to the lowest points. His other arm's hanging off the side of the bed, and it's scarlet all the way from his fingertips to his shoulder. The other walls of the room have been painted in white ointment, too. Hunched white shapes, too crude for detail. The vague shape of a jagged jawline. The only legible word, scrawled in plain English: "COLD". A grand arch, crowned with an oversized Erchius crystal. Half of the room's already been scrubbed of them, sharply cleaned off like chalk from a blackboard. He must've drawn these himself before he passed out. The gangly woman takes any excuse not to look at him, but seems... particularly fixated on the crowned arch. "It, uh. Wouldn't surprise me if they poisoned them there, and just fed 'em an antidote. Keep the leash short."
Android 17	Seventeen watches as the door opens, and the smell of sweat washes out. He wasn't much of a doctor, but he could tell this was a terrible situation. His breathing was far too fast, his blood was pooling in places that it shouldn't be. He looked like he just got into a fistfight and lost. The cyborg sucks in a breath, as his eyes follow the remains of the drawings. The grand arch with the crystal catches his eye first. "It's possible, but I wonder if that's the case," he wonders aloud, this would be more Staren's job than his. He sure as hell wasn't going to try and do something like that, especially lacking in the right skills. "What is this?" he asks the woman, trying to see if she could identify it.
Staren	"The 'gunk' looked like stuff to help protect you from the NEOs." Staren informs, neutrally. "I don't know what to think. Septette has always done the right thing before. And those other people in the broadcasts, I've worked with for a long time, although we don't always agree on things. This whole situation just feels off. Protecting you from the NEOs is a good thing, but is that really all that's going on here? Are they just a problem Septette created, or is there more here? If everything is as it appears, I should be helping them help you." Staren holds out the hand without beam cannons on it in a 'stop' gesture. "But, they're hiding something. If they'd just asked, I'd have helped. It follows that if I /were/ helping them, I'd discover something that would make me not /want/ to help, something that would allow me to hinder their work even more than I already am by helping you. And they know that." Staren starts pacing back and forth. "I KNOW she wasn't here, a few days ago. Have there been any patterns or irregularities in the rate of appearance of NEOs? She might have started it, but maybe now that they've started it doesn't depend on her anymore. And if it doesn't, do you have any other plans for dealing with them if she's driven out and they keep appearing?"
August Kohler	The recordings draw August into a frown, but he notes something. "I can't hear George. I wonder what he thinks about this." Pacing inside, Staren's ramblings get a sharp look. "Don't even consider it. Septette's holding these people under her command against their will." To the others, August speaks simply enough. "We need to stop them from starving the people. The Flotilla will be expecting us. Any ideas?"
Staren	Staren rolls his eyes at August. "Maybe that's the part of the plan I'd object to. If you want to talk to George, why don't you call him? He implied this was all on the level and that Septette just has some communication problem that keeps her from seeing it'd be good to be open with me. He didn't say anything about the Captains' part in all this, though." "Bringing in food seems easy enough. I thought about giving them nanofabricators, but I'm concerned Septette -- or, now, the Flotilla -- might subvert them. Maybe it's worth it, though -- If they wanted to hurt these people badly enough to mess with their food, they could have deployed killbots and poison in the first place."
Gideon Kaspar	"Gunk is gunk is gunk." Gideon replies to Staren, abruptly terminating his examination of the Erchius crystal after Clover 100% falls for the guy yelling and panics, trying to drag him out of the way, before looking sheepish and blushing fucshia while Rose snickers. "All the way down here? It's probably just as much industrial runoff. Or NEO poison. Remember, we did see them contaminating the water pipes. Intentionally! Basic siege tactics, you know. We've been doing it since the days of keeps and castles." He paces a little bit around the bed, but ends up pushing back his jacket, placing his hands on his hips, and shaking his head. "I was afraid of something like this, but he seemed perfectly lucid and healthy at the time. Intentionally poisoning them at the rehabilitation facility seems unlike it. How would you get a paranoid nutcase just coming out of cryostorage to routinely take the mysterious medicine you shove in their face right off the bat? No, there's probably something going on in his brain. I'm not a doctor, however, and this man needs one." he says, swatting Martin's dangling arm with the back of his hand and then pulling it up onto the cot. Violet is poised over the drawing of the arch. "Is this a real place?" she asks. "Somewhere in the mines. Is this supposed to be depicting a place he went to?" Krys thunks the suitcase on the floor and says "It's clear he won't survive here for long on his own. We should be moving him to an intensive care facility, for whatever good that will do. Even they probably won't know what to do with him, if it's unique to this place. Those things got in his head." "Quite right they did. You know how much influence the mind has over the body." "I wouldn't know, being a weapon that follows orders." "Oh come off that again." Gideon circles back around the room. "Your Carcer friend clearly wasn't up to the task if this is how bad it got while they were on duty! Don't go pining over obsolete systems of security; look to the future! If this is a sickness, then clearly somebody already knows how to treat it! How will we acquire that method? We'll buy it of course! And if that doesn't work, we'll exercise our God-given right to steal it from digital storage!" He claps his hands and points to the TV splice. "That Orderly is still out there looking for him, right? It's a crude robot with no grace or beauty designed to retrieve patients at all costs. That suggests its manufacturer already knows there are consequences for leaving the facility, and is able to treat them if they actually want escapees back. That means the Orderly has the procedures somewhere in its ugly brain to deal with the issue, or at least to the exact set of points to hand over the patient to the comptuer that does!" "Commander, are you really suggesting-" "Precisely! Our good friends at the four-oh-four!" "I wouldn't call 'that one' anyone's friend." "Is that worry I hear?" "For you? Not a prayer." "If you'll forget about Carcer for a moment and put your trust in your good pals at Griffin&Kryuger Private Military Company, I can have exactly what you need delivered to your doorstep. Forget hired thugs; I'm talking top of the line reconnaissance, intelligence, sabotage, hacking, electronic and info-warfare equipment and specialists! The only enemy you're fighting man to man are the NEOs, but your real enemy is working with automation, automation, automation. Behind a curtain of computers and drones and holograms, keeping you out and the information in. Let's say we put away the brave Alamo resistance for a second, pack away the guns, and start doing what you should have in the first place." "Insurgency 'fit for the modern age'?" "Insurgency fit for the modern age!"
Android 17	Seventeen gives Staren a hard look, then again...he really didn't trust Staren much anyway. His eyes focus back on the drawing before Gideon goes into the spiel about the modern age insurgency. There is a sharp intake a breath before he turns right towards Gideon. "Do you always sound like you're in an infomercial?" he says, perhaps a bit too sarcastically. "However, you're not wrong. If there is a way to treat him, it is likely that orderly has it." Seventeen says, conceding the point. He turns back towards the pictures again, "Staren, if you call any of this a good thing, then you have problems. Big problems. You just don't seem to get that people tend to say their actions are right, that people are willing to swallow consequences if they feel the ends justify the means." "We do have the advantage of them not knowing where we are, but they have the advantage of being able to wait us out," Seventeen says, back on topic. Everything in him screams at wanting to just crash through things until they find both of these people and throw THEM out an airlock and see how they feel about it. Well, ok, the Robot might not mind... "Alright, you got an idea. Let's hear it," Seventeen finally concedes to Gideon and his infomercial.
Septette Arcubielle	The gangly woman tears her eyes away from the crowned arch to look at Violet. "I swear I've... Yeah, it is a real place, now that I see it. It's not too far corewards from here. And he kept talking about being 'called to the gate'... It's, uh..." She stops herself, shakes her head, and takes a breath while she thinks over 17's question. "I don't know. I've never seen this. He's not even running a fever, just..." She gestures at him helplessly. Martin's arm blanches in an almost perfect impression of Gideon's hand at the light slap, and starts 'draining' its color back into his torso when it's placed back on the cot properly. "It's like the way a corpse blanches," she says, her voice slightly hushed, like making the comparison will make it real. The portly miner's expression sours as Staren talks, and his posture gets more defensive. "I dunno where you're gettin' this from," he says, "but they're not here to help us. We sure as hell never asked for their 'help'. If you're a friend of theirs, you're not a friend of mine. So forget whatever you think you know about them, and look at what they've done to us." He's about to say something similarly unhelpful in response to Staren's question about the NEOs, but someone else walks up behind him and interjects: "Karl. Allow me." 'Karl' grunts and leans off to the side as the newcomer steps forward, holding a rough industrial computer-tablet under one arm. He's a clean-shaven gentleman, dressed in gray sweatclothes instead of the rough hi-vis gear. "Generally we see about one minor NEO incursion attempt on the colony per week. A few days ago, we saw a ramp-up in the deployment of security drones. The day after that, there were two failed incursions in the same day- neither breached perimeter." He looks down at the tablet for a moment- maybe studying it, maybe collecting his thoughts- and then crosses his arms across it over his chest. "If you're suggesting that she's protecting us, somehow, it's... unlikely, in my view. But we've thought about the possibility. If the NEOs get worse after we depose her, we use our mineral wealth to hire mercenaries- perhaps men like yourself- and deal with it. If they cannot solve the problem, then I suppose we'd need to admit defeat and evacuate." Karl adds, gesturing towards the teleporter: "Not that that'd be worse than now. Only reason we haven't left already is because we still think we can change things." The man with the tablet heads towards the field hospital, and waves for Staren to follow him. "Come on. I get the hunch Our Illustrious Understudy is ready to get down to brass tacks." He arrives just in time, more or less, for the tail end of Gideon's glorious sales pitch.
Septette Arcubielle	'The Understudy' seems positively bewildered, and bewilderedly positive, towards his slick spiel. Her eyes glaze over a bit near the middle, but by the end of it she's nodding along. "Yeah. I mean, we've been risking our own necks on the assumption that jail's the worst that could happen, but..." She looks back at Martin and sucks in her breath. "We weren't really ready for... this. I think Grimes would agree. Anything that puts our guys less at risk, I think... I think we've got an obligation to do that." "Whatever it is you're selling, I'll buy it. Especially if it can..." Help Martin? "Get the Orderly off us. I didn't like that thing at the Facility. I'd like it even less in our camp." She straightens up, leans back against the wall, and nods to August. "Yeah, I heard them. We've got our own hydroponics here, but if they cut the water and power, we've got nothing. Might be able to find an underground river, or we could sabotage enough of their infrastructure they choke on false positives. Anything to stop from going back on their food. Half the folks here would rather starve."
Staren	Staren gives Seventeen a serious look. "Ends DO justify means. Even when people refuse to use certain means, it's because they have an expectation that those means always bring bad ends. What matters is how you count up the consequences. What's acceptable and what's not. When someone says 'the ends justify the means!' and you don't think they do, the disagreement is whether the mix of good and bad consequences is acceptable -- not whether ends can ever justify means, or whether good consequences can come with acceptable negative side effects." "In theory, what she does here could lead to great things. There might be other versions of Etria out there where the abyssals are still loose. There could be similar enemies... there ARE beings with similar methods of attack on other worlds. Innoculating people against those threats could be a great help. I can agree with that goal, but I don't get why the kidnapping. There have to be people from Etria and transhuman space that would happily volunteer for such experiments. Maybe even some erchius miners who would." Staren follows to the infirmary. "'Underground rivers'? You're on an asteroid, how the hell does that even work? Look." Staren turns to Karl. "I've been honest with you, and I appreciate that you're still willing to talk to me. It's concerning that my usual allies are keeping me out of the loop. I want to help you, and I have a lot of the same tools the people on those broadcasts have, or things that fulfill the same functions. I can support you. But if you don't want to let me, I understand. However... if there were any way for the Captains and Septette to persuade me that this is, on the whole, a good idea, why haven't they done it yet? Maybe... maybe they see this as something they know I won't do." Would he really not, though? Is this all that different from his plan to trick people into accepting immortality because they have so much trouble accepting it as a gift? Damn, Nessos is conflicting and frustrating.
Gideon Kaspar	Gideon pats Staren on the shoulder as he walks past. "You should quit while you're ahead. What you're telling them is that it's fine if bad things happen to them because more good things might happen to lots of people out there that they'll never meet. People don't work like that you see." He nods to Krysanthe, and the T-Doll with the silver hair and amber eyes nods and pops open the heavy case with a push on a locking footpedal. It reveals a compact package that includes an exo-frame (the really skeletal kind that fastens over the joints), folded up to the volume of a business suitcase, a scanner-baffling digital camouflage cloak, some special kind of boots or another, jamming, scramble, and chaff grenades, automated perimeter sensors the size of quarters, an electronic door cracker, camera splice, a teeny weeny silent camera drone with controller, and an honest to god hacking-knife, as well as integrated suppressor handguns and a few magazines of subsonic ammunition with electric charge payloads. "This is the Nessos Automaton Liberation Kit I put together. One of these should be all you need for your best and brightest to pull off these crazy operations you keep trying without having to slam mining machines and explosives into everything. More importantly, this is also ideal equipment for supporting at the rear lines. I have a personal connection to a small team of elite freelancers-" "Mercenaries." freelancers, who would be more than happy to take on the job. They already specialize in moving around unseen in areas heavily secured and patrolled by cascading structures of automated and administrated AI hostiles, and particularly in shutting down enemy networks, hacking and monitoring communications and enemy action, retrieving secure information, and electronic warfare. I'll ring them up just for this special job, and I can get it done for a lot cheaper than whatever cut Carcer was taking." "You think Eleven would wake up for that?" "Eh, whatever. As long as I don't have to be here when 'that one' comes around." "She'll probably go looking for you anyways." "They haven't let G&K down yet, have they? That Forty-Five gives me chills sometimes, but they always succeed."
Android 17	"Way to aggressively agree with me Staren. Yes, that is basically what I said, but this isn't something I think that justifies the means," Seventeen says, with a shrug of his shoulders. He wants to say more to Staren, but he knows that it's not likely to actually solve anything, or make it worse. Rubbing a hand through his own hair, he just lets it drop. "So we need to think about securing means of water, power, and food. That or preventing them from being able to find where this is and cut things off.." And then Gideon is running his Infomercial again. "Sure," he says, "That's also a way at it."
Gideon Kaspar	Gideon counts off on his fingers "Using these resources, we get treatment for the rehab patients by tracking down, ambushing, and stealing data from the Orderly. We hide the base by tapping into their network and subverting their scans and reconnaissance drones to report that there's nothing here. We crack their municiple networks to redirect power without showing a loss. Same with the water pumps. You can't do those things with explosives."
Starbound Flotilla	AN INDETERMINATE AMOUNT OF TIME LATER... The Flotilla may be brilliant manufacturers, and their infrastructure may be top-notch, but they're, well, they're just a half-dozen people. They can't stand around guarding power substations all day. Whatever Gideon's planning with his accomplices, most of what he'll have to contend with is a very special kind of engineering. The Flotilla have modularized their power distribution. Fuel lines pump fuel to tanks, tanks pump to generators, the small generators provide power to a few blocks at a time. It's highly resistant to power outages -- if fuel is disrupted or siphoned, the tank will send out an alert, but it'll keep providing its reserves to the generators it needs to pump to, based on sensible priorities. The generators themselves are locally managed by hand, and not networked in any way, only the tanks are. What this means is that any effective sabotage or siphoning will need to traverse a Sewer Level to mess with fuel at a number of key points -- at which point such a saboteur could expect automated defenses, electrified hazard zones, deep pits, pools of fuel emitting dangerous electromagnetic emissions, and other such hazards -- or find some way to track down information on where main tank control systems are found, which undoubtedly would be a significant hassle involving breaching multiple tank systems simultaneously. How would such a task be done? When it comes to rivers, that's another matter entirely. This is an asteroid, which means most of the water would be frozen, right? Wrong! Staren thought well, but he didn't quite think well enough. As an arcology, this place is using the asteroid as its heat radiator. This means that the dynamic fields of gravity-charged Erchius, combined with the heat put out by lots and lots of activity on the surface, is melting ice into consistent flows. Accessing those flows is dangerous though. Mining equipment is constantly on the move in areas where any consistent source of drinkable water can be found, because they're what puts out the heat it needs to be water that can be siphoned! Heavy laser drills and massive tunnel-boring mechanisms three storeys tall churn away at the outer area of the asteroid, meaning that getting some drinks is easy enough for adventurers, but they need to find a more complex solution to make it into an accessible source of proper water for /living/. Water isn't scarce in the arcology, people can shower, cook, and drink fairly freely. Most of the water-pumps are hand-managed, rather than dealt with digitally, so sabotage or siphoning is easy but consistently fixed, and the Flotilla is going to be updating the hardware quite soon; if they want to get a consistent flow, they'll need cover sabotage or something similar. Any substantial disruption to the water flow will have very severe impacts on the population though. It would be an easier way to hide the smaller siphoning efforts, but would cause significant morale damage, potentially provoking unknown consequences. How would you like to undertake this effort? All areas, of course, are patrolled by those same drones that have been sighted everywhere. The ones that have certainly given untold NEOs trouble, and make for a horrid high-voltage gauntlet for all others.
Starbound Flotilla	AN INDETERMINATE AMOUNT OF TIME LATER... The ORDERLY is difficult to find. Where it is, is something of a mystery. There are often traces of it, though. Places where an axe has been dragged along the ground. Airlocks that have been removed. Every so often, an effort to track them down will encounter someone who says a great black-armored humanoid grabbed them firmly, scanned their face, and then gently, carefully set them back down. Every so often, one can hear a distant noise of its scream. But tracking them? Difficult. Not while the thing is so busy hunting, itself.
August Kohler	Staren gets another dirty look from August as he cointinues to argue things and philosophy. "You're basically lowkey whining that they didn't recruit you." August mutters, before he looks to Gideon. He strokes his chin as Gideon makes his pitch. "I'm all for this, if your team's as good as you say it is, since the locals seem good for it. Regarding power and water..." August's plan regarding POWER is to brave the sewer levels for the fuel. He's not exactly sure what they'll do with the fuel besides probably steal some, but he's willing to lead a charge through security and risk his own well-being to get a team through it. Water is way trickier. August is flat-against substantial disruption. They're not threatening the people of Nessos, no matter who they are, and shutting down their water supply. Cover sabotage of some sort, including 'Elites causing a big distraction while they start the siphon' is his pitch for now. His pitches are relatively simple - he wants to play off the others instead of dictating this whole thing. He wasn't involved with the Orderly and such, so he's actually wanting 17's input, as a fellow Watchman who has been involved in this more than he has.
Septette Arcubielle	"It's not that complicated," Karl says, giving Staren a hard look despite the obvious restraint of his tablet-toting companion. "They're bad people. Not everything's got to be some kind of dilemma. They're screwing us over, so we're going to hurt them back. Anybody who disagrees has been drinking the water. Maybe you ought to wean yourself off it, too." He gives Gideon and August a slightly mollified nod- the younger, less scruffy men may not exactly be his in-group, but at least they understand. The second-in-command runs her hands over the briefcase-exosuit with the reverent care of someone with the deepest respect for engineering refinement. Her eyes glitter with something almost, but not quite like, avarice. It's the same look that the miners had when Staren handed out his guns, but sharpened and refined. It's a kind of hope alloyed with the tangible reminder that they aren't alone. "I'll take it," she says impulsively, then- catching herself- adds: "For your help, Carcer's cut. As a percentage of ongoing production until paid in full, not lump sum. So you've got an interest in our not being crushed." She's not an experienced negotiator by any means, but at least she's smart enough to look at ulterior motives. On the subject of wider planning, the miners in the room don't have much to say- the Understudy suggests using one or more of the rescued Rehabilitation patients as bait for the Orderly, which the others seem warily receptive to. It might work, but it'd require putting more people at risk.
Staren	"I was, at first." Staren nods. "But the more I think about it, the more clear there's something up." "I'll handle the water." ---- Staren thinks. In his head, he sketches out plans to survey the parts of the asteroid close to the settlement for ice, then use erchius-based heaters to melt it, and set up pumps to extract it. But where will he get the power? Nuclear's expensive. Perhaps solar? The erchius fuel needs to be refined. It's a shame that the things already melting the ice are always moving. There's no good way to set up some kind of moving water-collection system-- Then it hits him. ---- Staren teleports away and is gone for hours. When he comes back, he's out of the armor for once. And his drones are lugging... Well. It looks kind of like a round tank with arms and legs stuck on, and a little head on top with a radio antenna, camera eyes, and a nozzle mouth/nose. The whole thing is the right size for navigating the mining tunnels, and there's more on the way. Staren just needs to activate them. He can do this one at a time, waiting for his magic to recharge, but if the miners allow, he'll lead some of them in a ritual to use their own latent potential psychic energy to power on the golems. Non-magic-users don't have much, but he doesn't NEED much for these simple constructs. They'll act with a modicum of intelligence, avoiding threats, and they're made of sturdy material but not designed for prolonged combat. They're computer-networked enough to call combat drones for help, and smart enough to retreat from anything that looks like trouble. But the idea is comically simple: Send these water tank golems to where the mining machinery is generating heat. Have the mining machines get them access to water, or have them mine too, or have them accompanied by miners or miner golems or something. Then they extend their nozzles, suck up all the water they can carry, and bring it back to wherever the miners would like to store it. Then they go get more. Staren is pleased with himself for coming up with it, at least.
Android 17	"I'm with August on that, disrupting the water for everyone is a bad idea. It doesn't work for us if we hurt the people we're trying to save," Seventeen says, for once in synch with the leader of the watch. The cyborg things for a bit longer, even as Staren leaves. "I got it. Staren could bait the Orderly out. It had scanned him and probably considered him not safe enough. It stands to reason it should try and find him as well as the missing people." Seventeen puts that plan forward. "Failing that..." he says, looking out the room, towards the way they came and the room with the dying man, "I hate to say it, but it might be looking for a specific patient. Given what we are seeing...it might be looking for him."
Gideon Kaspar	Look, you don't have to be an experienced negotiator with Gideon when you're a young lady with obvious interest in guns and tech. "Haha, of course! Either way, there's no point in letting you be stomped out. It's obvious you don't have wads of cash on hand to pay it all up front. Besides, that's not how arms contractors make money. Smugglers and gangsters get by on one time jobs. A real contractor makes an investment. I'll draft up an agreement and you can look at the numbers for yourself. I have fifty units of these on hand and ready to move at the moment. The 404's contract is something I'll handle myself." he says, pulling the lapels of his coat together. Sending out split teams to survey the details, Gideon takes note of it all through remote link and adds it all to his database, computing maps all the while. He compiles a list of places the Orderly has been and people it's scanned and hammered out the trail for review for the 404 being called in, so they can do their more expert tailing work and use their specialized e-warfare Zener protocol on it, which will take some time. The water is left alone for the time being, with the team addressing fuel concerns first getting into the systems of several tanks and disabling their alerts, splicing the gauges to read within normal tolerances from a central monitoring station. He has the generators themselves examined for if they can can sip power runoff from them in very small amounts to collectively harness a lot of essentially unnoticeable efficiency losses into a stream of power for the very small rebel miner base. The sewer levels are carefully mapped out in the meantime, with automatic defenses and powered traps shot out, shut down, or subverted, to create narrow safe-ish passages that rebels can run routes down for fuel, expecting they can get some bilges and planks themselves for the rest. He creates a tactical plan of the gathered intel to deliver to the miners at large, to provide an overview of where the defenses have been put up and where drones patrol, as well as indicated places to move and/or hide forces and materiel using the stealth gear. He'll try to access any kind of alert network the automated defenses are keyed to, in order to tap into them and add the status of all the low level defense and surveillance systems around the place to the TV networks the miners have set up.
August Kohler	August swallows a breath as they talk about the dying man and using him as bait. After a few moments of thought, he nods. "If it's because of the Orderly or something, then...bait might be what we need. But if we send a patient out there as bait, me or Android 17 or both should go with them. I'm a regenerator, he has forcefields. We're the best bet for holding him off while the innocent gets away." Though August is blunt enough to say, "I'd prefer we use Staren as bait rather than a patient, though. At least Staren is capable." And in August's eyes, expendable. He's immortal, anyways, it should be fine.