Scene #6931: Operation: Divebomb

Owner	Pose
Big Boss	The stars are beautiful, once you're in space. Shining bright, these balls of light and gas illuminate the darkness. Bright enough to lure an Icarus to their doom. James Hopper is a highly respected transporter for the Frewer Company, to the point of being their agent when it comes to docking directly at the Ad Coelum. It's a shame that he's been turned by Outer Heaven, now an operative of theirs under the name of 'Bastard Hippo'. Aboard the 'Contessa' cargo vessel, Bastard Hippo sits alone in the cockpit. He's double checked his supplies. They're supposed to be transporting food supplies, but these crates will never leave the cargo hold. That's because they're not holding only what they say they are. You are packed inside these crates, sometimes two men per, unless you have your own entry or ability to not be seen. You are sitting in vegetables. Among you is the Big Boss himself, dressed in his full greatcoat and sneaking suit, beret, and with a rifle and a pistol slung to him, as well as several grenades of various types. There are three primary operations: getting outside the ship and planting bombs on the hull (to which those taking this mission have been supplied rudimentary space suits if they don't have their own, as well as a duffelbag full of explosives), taking out the power core (to which you've also been supplied a bag of explosives), and taking control of the helm (to which you've been supplied nothing but basic weapons if you need them). Big Boss has elected to take the helm, along with whoever will join him, getting a chance to see him in operation personally.
Big Boss	To get out of the crates, you'd normally need to be inspected by security once they're offloaded - but Bastard Hippo has that planned. 'Pretending' to spill his coffee on the security guard, causing an argument and a long distraction, you have the time to move, replace your crates' lids, and start sneaking through the cargo hold. There's rotating guards on shift, checking various crates, who you'll have to slip by. The entrance hall is your target. White-panelled walls and the light of teleportation from embassy teleporters mark it. Getting through it to the main structure of the Ad Coelum will be difficult - unless you're one of the ones on the easy operation of 'getting outside', then you only have to go look for an exit, slip past in that direction, jump out, and rappel to the side of the ship. The hall, is, luckily, so crowded that once you're past the security checkpoints, you have some room to move without getting identified as 'out of place'. In the center of the room is a fountain, with a statue of a classical knight in shining armour, sword sheathed but with shield raised, offering its free hand down to desperate figures in need of aid. Maintenance workers are pushing carts past, towards the greater ship. They mention that they need some better tools, to fix a 'broken airlock' that's causing problems. Magtrains line up near the entrance hall right past the final security kiosk, along with a map of the station. Those looking for engineering can find it on the map, but going directly to the helm is, as Big Boss would put it, 'tactical suicide'. The helm group, therefore, will have to find their way to the ship's maintenance tunnels. The intercom rings out. 'Next magtrain to Engineering has arrived'. It's an easy enough option, if they can actually get past the checkpoint. The one thing they all know: they cannot go loud before the bombs are ready. If the Ad Coelum docks with the Corpus Juris, that's a failstate. They don't have the manpower to fight off the troops waiting at the space station.
Android 17	Seventeen, in his crate simply crossed his arms and closed his eyes. Simply resting and letting his heightened hearing do the work for him as he makes sure everything is alright. Of course, when the coffee is spilled, you really don't need enhanced hearing for that. Opening his lid and skipping out. He moves with Big boss deeper into the facility. While he is not a stealth operative, he is very hard to kill, which will be very necessary if they are to keep control of the bridge to make sure the course can't be corrected. While they walk, he keeps his steps as quiet as he can, and focus on his hearing. If there were people around, he would be able to hear them coming a bit away, as potentially hear any hollow spots for them to track a way into the maintenance shaft.
C	Smelling thoroughly of cabbage, Crow slips through to the main hall with minimal difficulty given his lithe frame and crafty nature. How tacky, he thought to himself upon inspecting the knight statue at the fountain. It reeked of pompous, self-serving egotism to him, and it all too readily reminded him of 'home'. With a sour taste in his mouth, Crow moves on to scout out the final security checkpoint. He'd need a way onto that train without being spotted, and that would take some ingenuity on his part; namely, to make his way to the men's restroom. If he were lucky, he'd find someone he could reasonably steal the identity of to get on that train with no muss.
Riku	The crate wasn't pleasant, but he's had worse. Riku remains quiet, meditating in the darkness. If someone else is in his crate, someone might hear him murmur something... But it's not to them. When the distraction comes, Riku slips out of his crate, quickly slips out of sight, and dusts himself off, causing a few bits of loose leafage to fall away. He glances to one side, and then the other. He's wearing a sleek, tight black vaccuum suit with a usefully anonymous polarized glass helm. His gaze sweeps the area as he moves, looking for some kind of viewport outside before he even gets to the entrance hall. He silently sinks into the wall, blackness engulfing him as he opens a path through the darkness into the endless black of space. He appears on the opposite side, pulling out a magnetic removable grip and turning to slap it ot the side of the ship, using it as an anchor as he pulls himself tight against the side. The need to keep out of sight and not alert anyone remains critical. After arranging himself, he detatches the grip, a shadow carrying it away from him and placing it elsewhere, pulling him through the silence towards the next locking point, making his way to the designated explosive points.
Gaonoir	If anyone got stuck sharing a crate with Gaonoir they're actually pretty lucky. The Digimon in his base form doesn't take up as much room as a full sized human huddled within. He's also got the least obtrusive 'exit' when it comes time to get out of hiding quick and quietly. Crack open the lid just enough he can peek out, and a moment later he's slinking in the crates' shadows thanks to his voidstep abilities, duffle slung over a shoulder. Alas, he can't use that trick to teleport directly outside like Riku, that's would stretch his reserves thin and risk missing or getting stuck. So he's still got to sneak his way to find the exit outside. Fortunately moving stealthily something he's good at when a fight isn't needed, having been trained as a 'search and destroy' trooper back in the old digiworld days, taking advantage of this base form's smaller size and dark colors (and a little flash stepping when it's not going to draw attention). As long as he can stay out of direct sight and slip past the security checks, there should hopefully be little notice of him creeping through. Hopefully. 'Broken airlock' sounds like the best place to sneak to. Even if it's not open entirely, he's got a better chance of slipping through than he does phasing outside directly.
Nova Terra	Nova spends the time inside the crates mainly just playing a game on her suit's display panel. A port of the classic game Lost Viking. Something to kill the time. Though she also did transfer the provided explosives into a bag she brought with her. A necessity if she plans to do any cloaking. Which she most definitely will. Upon notice of their impending arrival, Nova puts the game away and then proceeds to wait quietly. The plan was to distract the guard with coffee. And oldie, but it works. And as soon as said guard is distracted, Nova silently lifts the lid of her crate with her mind and climbs out. Placing it back, she quickly moves out of sight. Blue light washes over her as her cloak activates, turning her, along with her weapons and the bag slung over her back, invisible. Nova makes her way off the transport, moving cautiously to avoid causing a ripple in her cloak. Picking up on the same cue as Gaonoir, the Ghost begins to follow the Digimon towards the broken airlock. Not all of them can simply ignore physics like Riku. On the bright side, sticking together should make it easier to handle any obstacles they come across.
Danzo Katou	Easily lost in the crisscrossing tides of crew and visitors, between the ebb and flows of soldiers and labourers, diplomats and sightseers, one member of the little crowd that gathers at the base of the statue --inevitable, with public artworks like these, to read plaques and take pictures-- turns her head towards the Watchmen that pass. Seemingly just having been lost in thought, mistily staring upwards at the righteous colossus of silver, a woman with long, black hair turns to look over the rim of her thick, bright red scarf, watching with yellow eyes; they're about the only part of her visible, with a slightly overlong red haori making her look as if she'd just come out of the cold. A perfect stranger in Japanese winter clothing. Very slightly, very slowly, she nods towards Big Boss, and then turns and moves away. Away and towards the trains, boarding her ride right on schedule. It might just be the imagination. After all, as soon as she arrives, she rustles through her overlarge sleeves and produces a perfectly valid clearance card to board the train. Her credentials are in there and everything. The little reflective designs and anti-counterfeit code check out. It glows under the correct lights. The checkpoint scanners don't beep. Just a contractor; a pretty face in the crowd, on her way. It's not until she's on the train, holding the door, watching the platform, that she shuffles a thin, keycard-sized, wood block print back into her sleeve.
Big Boss	The three teams split up. From here, they'll be broken into 'Helm', 'Exterior', and 'Engines'. HELM TEAM: Android 17 joins Big Boss. Once they get past the first checks into the lobby, shadowing the maintenance crew, he radios over to 17. <"They're likely headed into maintenance. That'll be our access. We'll shadow them. Keep your ears up, in case they talk, and relay whatever they say."> He nods to the woman with the yellow eyes as they pass, before focusing ahead of himself. As the two men head into a maintenance shaft, he stops, and then enters right before the doors will close. He's making distance - they won't hear their footsteps as well if they're not right behind them. The maintenance tunnels are long and dark, so the men turn on lights. 17 and Big Boss cannot risk doing so, as they step through oil and grime. The two men with the maintenance cart haven't noticed them, and are just talking. "So, where we taking this thing again?" "Up near the bridge." "You've ever been in there?" "Hell no. You can't even open the maintenance door without permission." "How the hell are you supposed to get permission?" "You submit a support ticket to the queue." "Ugh, what a pain." They then start talking about this Sunday's upcoming Bloodbowl match, and who they think will win, and it's all pretty boring, and going to be a long walk. 17 can start preparing for anything he might have in mind. EXTERIOR TEAM: Riku can get out through the viewport on one of the airlock doors, bypassing any and all security and immediately being in space. Gaonoir and Nova aren't as lucky. They're able to slip past security with their own skills in stealth and invisibility, but making it through to the train would be a nightmare. Luckily, there is in fact a broken airlock. It's not locking tight, apparently, so forcing it open is easy enough. They'll have to force it back closed to avoid any alarm, but they can get out there once they have their suits on. The exterior is cold, but there's no one manning it. As the Exterior Team approaches their assigned targets with their bags of bombs, they can see how /massive/ the Ad Coelum is, as well as a very good look down on the superplanet. Their targets aren't going to be easy, though. Outer Heaven intel comes through. <"There's a good chance they have various sensors on a ship like this. Don't expect it to be a cakewalk just because there's no one out there, alright?" ENGINE TEAM: As far as Crow knows, he's alone. He can slip off into the bathroom, and is very, very lucky. There's two men inside - someone in a stall, and a man in overalls washing his hands at the sink, muttering constantly about how he's not prepared. Knocking a man unconscious should be easy enough for him - the question is which man, and where he hides the body. After that, he has to get to the train fast enough, because it's going to depart soon. The yellow-eyed woman in the winter clothing, meanwhile, is accepted straight onto her train. She can take a seat and start overhearing things. Apparently, there's a new guy being transferred to Engineering off the Space Station Corpus Juris, but no one's met him yet. Funny that. After a few minutes there, though, the train would start taking off at good speeds, pulling them across the magnetic rails. It's going to pull through double cargo doors, where it'll take them straight into the Engineering Bay, where most of the work on the ship is done. Yellow paint marks it, as does the loud noises of heavy machinery going off.
Big Boss	ENGINE TEAM: The engineering bay is full of workers in overalls and hardsuits, but the power core is locked down, with engineers working alongside it and guarding it from nearby, watching it like a hawk. Just walking in will be impossible - bluffing will be necessary.
Gaonoir	Once they're at the airlock, Goanoir gets down to business. He sets his duffle down, opening it briefly to pull out his suit. Which is noticably bigger than he is. That's exactly why he didn't wear it already, it was fitted to something more suited to the outside, apparent as he shifts to his taller biped form before slipping it on. See, digimon are perfectly capable of doing that -without- all the theatrics, a lot of them just do it for visual impact. Which this is not the time for. Likewise his jetpack remains collapsed to his back, unless he ends up actually needing it. ALso too big and flashy for the stealth part of the mission. The duffle is sealed back up and slung over his body to hang at his side. Then he grabs the faulty airlock and uses his expectional physical strength to wedge it farther open for them to slip through and outside. "After you," he whispers, allowing Nova to exit first. Then follow him out, and using same strength to push the airlock hatch back to it's previous position. That should help avoid being noticed a little while longer. <"Copy that."> he responds over the comm. As he makes his way out on the exterior carefully, keeping an eye out for anything to looks like it might tip off to their presence.
Android 17	Well, throw the plan on him. Seventeen isn't an expert in stealth operations, though he knows how to be quiet. Right now it's planning out what is there in front of them. With a shrug, he motions towards the maintenance people. He goes for the one who knows the process. He times his steps with those ahead, keeping his ears open as they talk. Trying to see if they say anything else useful. Not that he expects it, but when the time comes... Seventeen dashes forward, closing distance with the man in seemingly an instant, holding a hand over his mouth, and a hand aiming to grab his other arm and twist it behind him. He trusts Big Boss and his help to get the other one(s) down. They only needed the one in his hands, sooo... "So, make a loud sound or talk on any radio and I'll break your neck. Understand? What I need you to do for me is to get access to the bridge hatch. If you do, I won't kill you or your men. Understand? Just nod, no sounds."
C	Crow smiles lightly to himself, closing the door to the bathroom with a gentle push. It was something of a coin toss, but it seems that lady luck was favoring him today. If his eyes didn't deceive him, the man at the sink -- the easiest one for him to approach and subdue, he already determined -- was an engineer of some kind. In other words, the precise disguise he needed to get exactly where he wanted to go. Running a hand through his white hair before sucking in a deep breath, Crow pounces, wrapping his arm around the Engineer's neck to choke him into unconsciousness, dragging him back from the sink into a second stall and shutting it after depositing the body on the toilet. From there, Crow rifled as efficiently as he could through the man's belongings to ascertain his identity and his credentials before beginning the process of undressing himself out of his Thors uniform and stripping the other man of his own clothing to take for his own. Using electrical tape to seal his mouth and steel wires to bind his hands and feet in case he woke up before the bombs went off, Crow figures this was a good enough spot to leave him, making sure to leave the door to the stall locked on his way out of the bathroom clad in the Engineer's outfit and sans his own white bandana. He makes it to the magtrain in record time, the spitting image of a young worker in a new workplace trying desparately not to be late, no one the wiser to the bombs and orbal pistols carried on his person. "Whew..." He takes a spot across from a pretty looking eastern woman. She had catching yellow eyes, it took everything he had not to strike up a conversation, reminding himself that he needed to keep a low profile lest someone scrutinize him a little too closely. Even so, he gives his best charming smile. Once he actually arrives in the engineering bay, he lets out a low whistle as he began to plot how he was going to get past all that security. Ultimately, he approaches directly. "Hey, I just transferred in. My name's.." Crow smiles sheepishly, remembering the man's ID. " ... Eli, Eli Madder."
Nova Terra	As they approach the broken airlock, Nova prepares herself for heading out into space. This simply consists of stuffing her ponytail into the back of her suit, pulling the full head mask out from under her collar and over her head, then bringing her visor down over the holes in the mask for her eyes. The suit registers a complete seal and the life support systems kick in. Unless something goes drastically wrong, Nova should have plenty of air to complete the mission. Gaonoir kindly opens the broken airlock door, to which the invisible Ghost radios a <"Thank you."> Nova proceeds to step into the outside of space, tapping a control on her suit display as she does so. The surface gripping function of her armored boots activate. Not exactly magnetic, due to a need to operate on numerous types of zero-g surfaces, it's essentially the same function. Nova takes a moment to look up into the vastness of space, along with the superplanet below. She's hit by the familiar feeling of insignificance at such a sight. And can't help but say, <"This never gets old."> Enough sightseeing though, Nova begins to walk across the exterior of the large ship, heading to her assigned targets, <"Hah. I'd like to see them find me. Moving out to position one.">
Riku	EXTERNAL TEAM: Riku takes the shortcut, but he trusts in his allies to keep up. After all, they're all here on this stealth mission, right? Riku does not reply, but he does signal with a click-click of his radio. He looks back to Nova and Gainoir. Out here on the surface, he pulls up a small penlight and flickers it a the pair to signal his location, keeping radio noise to a minimum. Riku is taking this seriously, it seems. He slows down on his movement, trying to figure out where the locations of those sensors are. Maybe the more tech-savvy members of the team can pinpoint them more easily. He can get around, but he's more used to magical threats.
Danzo Katou	Sitting directly across from the woman in the red haori, Crow finds himself watched the entire ride. From one stop to another, every time he glances in her direction, she appears to be staring right at him. Is she onto him? Those clothes can't be precisely the right size, right? If she works here, then maybe she might expect to know his face already if he's in uniform. Maybe there's some sort of greeting he's supposed to exchange? No . . . the longer it goes on, the less it seems that way. Every time he looks in her direction, not only is she still staring at him, but she hasn't moved a muscle either. From first sitting down, all the way to their destination, she hasn't shifted the slightest bit. Not one budge in her posture. It's as if she's completely tuned out the entire train ride, waiting for the final stop with all the responsiveness of someone asleep. But she isn't. The moment the magtrain pulls up to engineering, she smoothly stands out of her seat and heads for the door, disembarking right behind him. As if it'd been all of five seconds. As if it weren't worth saying a thing to him. She doesn't say anything at the engineering bay either, smoothly maneuvering past crowds of overalled workers and around powered suits and lifters, moving through the working zone as if she'd beelined through it a hundred times before. She enters into the larger crowd, where the traffic constantly crisscrosses over the main thoroughfare, between the entrance and the secure core, and in the space of blinking, disappears, as if she'd never been. Deep within the shadows of a recently loaded cargo platform, between the gaps in replacement flywheels and fusion anvil chambering, the woman shrugs back her sleeves to her wrists and clasps her hands, touching two fingertips together. Her eyes glow faintly in the dark, though with nobody to see them, fixed on one 'Eli Madder' talking to the security team. Into the thick folds of her scarf, she whispers: "Kakaguri Genpou - Katon" Extremely close, directly in front of 'Eli', but behind the men he's stuck talking to, a piece of machinery stops, sparks, and then begins disgorging flame from the seams in its casing. Ruddy orange fire belches through the cracks, pouring quantities of acrid, iron-smelling smoke. It isn't a big fire, but it threatens to become one very quickly --the kind that trained professionals would immediately jump on with the closest personnel for fire and damage control. A surprise fire; alarming, but quick to resolve with whoever is at hand.
Big Boss	EXTERNAL TEAM: Now in space, they start approaching the bomb sites. There's a /lot/ of them, and it's going to take a while. They can spot the sensors easily enough - they're color-coded, red and blue. The problem is twofold: they linger over the sites and other areas, sometimes too long to plant over the bombs...and they have no idea how the sensors differentiate. They /do/ turn on and off, at least, so they can try and sneak in a window, but the group will have to probably trial-and-error it, or find their own way to get intel. Also, a red sensor is coming straight across the outside, going to hover over them for quite a radius. They may want to figure out a plan, quick. ENGINE TEAM: Disguised as 'Eli Madder', Crow gets off the train and talks to the first official looking person to introduce himself. An older man, with a bushy black beard and beady eyes, the engineer nods to him as he introduces himself and extends a glove for a handshake. "Ah, you must be our new transfer. Eli, was it? You're much younger than I was expecting!" Chuckling, the man turns over to a desk of paperwork and supplies nearby. "Now, where was your assignment form...I don't quite remember-" One of the primary machines stops and sets ablaze. It makes a horrible smoky smell, the man covering his face, before turning, eyes widened. "Oh, Jesus, let me just- everyone, handle that!" He runs to grab a fire extinguisher, completely forgetting about Crow. It's easy enough to just walk over to the power core... And find security cameras everywhere. They're probably more focused on the fire than the power core on the exterior, but it means that, most importantly, the power core is completely watched. Planting the bombs will be impossible without either dealing with the cameras, or finding an alternative, and Crow's on a time crunch - as soon as that guy disappears and finds him completely vanished, he'll get suspicious. HELM TEAM: As Seventeen dashes forward, having communicated the plan, Big Boss suddenly takes a brisk pace. He goes for the other guy, grabs him around the neck in a chokehold, and starts squeezing. It's fast, it's efficient, and it's someone who's done this many times. When Big Boss is done, the man in the sleeper hold goes down, thudding into his arms unconscious, as Big Boss slowly drops him. The man that Seventeen has is widening his eyes, but after a moment, he nods. He's going to be cooperative, at least right now.
Android 17	Seventeen removes his hand from the mouth of the man carefully, but not letting it leave his neck. It does not strangle him, but rather leaves it there to remind him of his position. The hand gripping his arm remains, as he speaks firmly, but quietly. "Good, now do you have a way to access the means to gain the code for the bridge? Time is of the essence, for both you and your men," Seventeen reminds him again that it's not just his butt on the line, but his people as well. If the man gives them a direction nearby, he will move the man to the terminal or whatever is needed. He makes sure to hold the man just right but reminding him that it wouldn't take much to correct any attempts to subvert his demands.
C	Crow extends his hand to return the gesture, but the interaction is cut thankfully short by a sudden fire. In airships, flames were horrifically dangerous possibilities and he could only presume it was as bad or worse for space faring vessels. Although, he thought to himself, the timing was rather convenient. It was a gut hunch but he felt it was more likely it had something to do with that woman than another lucky accident. She'd caught his attention on the train, but ... how to put it? It was like staring at a doll, in some ways. Even more unsettling was how easily he lost track of her the moment they left the train, his bruised ego disappearing as quickly as she did in place of a subtle worry. Mulling it over, he supposes it wasn't impossible that there was simply another team member he wasn't aware of, or that the situation was marginally more complicated than that, yet yielded the same end result -- a comrade of sorts. There was no more time to dwell on it, though, he realized. With all of these cameras, he couldn't plant the C4 charges, and he only had a very finite amount of time to deal with them before his abscence was noticed. Swallowing thickly, Crow cast his eyes around before subtly withdrawing a smoke grenade from the same carrying case that held his guns and C4. From the perspective of the cameras, it might look related to the fire breaking out. Stepping forward into his cover, Crow could only put faith in his earlier supposition that he had an ally here and furthermore, that she'd be able to do more than his own measly attempt at obscuring himself. He really should have come more prepared, but there was no time to kick himself over it, he had plastic explosives to plant, covering his mouth and nose with his bandana.
Nova Terra	Heading towards their targets, Nova's HUD highlights the sensors as they come into view. That is... A lot of sensors. And while Nova is invisible, there are technologies that can detect cloaked Ghosts. And Nova has to assume, for mission safety purposes, that there's a possibility that these sensors can do the same. So she's reluctant to simply walk right into one. Not without knowing how they operate. So a plan is briefly hatched over a secure comm between the three exterior agents. For the moment, they're going to leave it up to Riku to try and figure out the sensor mechanics. In the meantime, Nova watches out for patterns in the sensor movements, utilizing her HUD displays to map them. That way she can identify blind-spots where she can safely start planting the explosives she's carrying.
Gaonoir	Okay, the sensor spots are visible. Some of them are moving. This is not something he hasn't dealt with before. The circumstances are just more intense. A lot was riding on this mission. Pressure was also something he was very familiar with, and not about to let it stall him for long. The digimon crouchs down, tapping into his scout training and predator cunning to watch the sensors and learn the movements. Things like this usually moved in a pattern. If they can figure out the patterns, find the gaps, or a way to misdirect them, they've got a better chance a-- One of the sensors is moving swiftly towards them. --They need to be more spread out, a group is too easy to spot. Gaonoir focuses on the sensors, waiting for the approaching one to get as close as he riskes before taking one of his steps into opposite space and repositioning himself in a clear spot that's already been swept over. Some of the gaps are small time frames, but as long as he has a few clicks to recheck the movement patterns and move again, he can keep trying to outmaneuver the sensors with his ability, take advantage of blind spots, and get to work on placing some of the bombs until someone figures out how to contend with the spots that are almost constantly watched instead of moving.
Big Boss	HELM TEAM: Big Boss nods towards 17, as the hostage finally gets his mouth freed. With the light shining, he mouths 'fuck you', but all it takes is even the tightest squeeze for him to cooperate. "Right..." at the upcoming split. There's a terminal in the maintenance tunnels, if 17 follows it. This is the easy part! The hard part is the terminal is password locked, and the maintenance guy rapidly shuts his mouth. Sheer threate of force aren't going to be enough.
Danzo Katou	Watching 'Eli' quietly excuse himself, past the mob of engineers jumping on the electrical fire like blood cells to a clot, the woman in the distance allows herself a moment of relief. However much he understands, he at least gets the picture of what he should be supposed to do. Good. The fire crackles merrily behind him, smelling of lithium and slag as he hurries past. Every so often, there's a little crack or quiet boom, and the groan of something settling out of place with an accompanying spray of sparks. The blaze is surprisingly stubborn, especially considering its uncertain origin. Waves of prickling heat repel engineers without hardsuits from opening it up, though when the fire control cavalry arrives, they find that it isn't too difficult to pull the casing off, for direct fire suppression. It doesn't spread, but it diminishes very slowly, eating up a great deal of time and an improbable amount of aerosol and foam and water and silicate, until finally going out once Crow is well inside. A normal fire would have been extinguished in a tenth of the time, with half the number of people, and left the cabling inside a mess of melted rubber and plastic and copper. Instead, the inside is only blackened by soot and smoke, after pulling so many engineers away from their posts. That's normal, since the fire never existed. "Kakaguri Genpou - Fuuton" The smoke billowing through the secure corridors looks just like it'd spread from the fire site, built up inside the electrical shielding and finally vented out through the air channels --not from a smoke grenade. It's thick and black and sooty, and definitely unsafe to breathe. Pinpricks of smouldering orange swirl within it, eventually turning the colour of coal and drifting back down to ground, as the smoke thins out into a grey haze, with the emergency air pumps in use. Very authentic. Best to wait it out, until the pumps have fully cleared it out. Normally, that should take only a minute or two. As long as the genpou is maintained though . . . ten minutes. That's the longest Crow gets before it's too suspicious that the cameras still can't see through the smog. It's also pushing the limit at which someone will finally realize that it isn't really hot, or difficult to breathe.
Riku	EXTERNAL TEAM: The information comes back on the status of the sensors. They're something of an annoying grid, it seems. At first glance, it would seem impossible to stealthily place the explosives. But patience is something Riku's been forced to learn over time. Patience... And working to learn more about the situation. With a lack of additional feed from Outer Heaven intel network, he has to operate on the fly. There is room for minor risks, and they need to know more about what's going on. While the others are operating elsewhere on the ship, Riku gets some distance and takes a careful look at one of the swivelling sensor mounts. With a smooth motion, he pulls out a wrench that he picked up somewhere. Just a piece of debris that might end up floating around out here... And he simply chucks it across the surface of the ship, making sure to skip it inside the sensor grid. He needs to know what triggers these things: Visual? Temprature? Movement? Something more exotic? What might happen if it detects something? Space is full of little things flying around at various speeds, it can't be ultra sensitive... and learning that information might give them what they need to work around the dense areas.
Big Boss	EXTERNAL TEAM: Nova and Gaonoir both move to dodge sensors in their own way. Nova starts scanning, while Gaonoir teleports past them. It works, mostly. Gaonoir's approach is better because he doesn't have to physically cross the distance, while Nova is very, very close. They manage to plant a few of the bombs that aren't being constantly refreshed by sensors, but the core goal is figuring out the sensors. Well, the wrench flies through. At first, nothing happens, with it moving so slowly. But after a few seocnds, something flies out of a port. It's a camera drone, which starts scanning around. It seems this was a motion sensor, likely, but the sensors themselves aren't cameras - they call out a drone to investigate for debris. That's red, down. What the hell is blue? ENGINE TEAM: Crow books it over to the engines, and fires off a smoke bomb, which turns into a full-blown smog with some mysterious aid. Danzou would say that Crow has ten minutes. He, realistically, has a bit less, until the guy who was with him, now searching for him, gets concerned enough to call security. A newcomer wouldn't just be wandering around, would he? Planting the bombs is difficult because of just how hot it is in the core. Crow has to be quick, and planting them all at once is difficult. He's under a severe time crunch. Extending his time crunch would be useful, as would finding a way to speed up the planting.
C	It just wasn't working out, he thought to himself. With the realization that he needed more time, Crow mulled it over. Gaining more time wasn't looking all that likely; rather, he was totally out of ideas to do help him on that front, even if he could afford to leave his position. No, Crow needed to keep planting C4 and he had to do it quickly. Slipping his hand into his overalls, Crow quietly mumbles, "ARCUS Activate." His body shimmered with a blue aura and the image of a clockface spinning wildly, as he used magic to temporarlly accelerate himself; he effectively was now able to plant the explosives twice as fast. He just hoped it was enough.
Android 17	Seventeen does not necessarily hate violence, he dislikes killing. However, he's a fighter at heart, and he's put his faith in the Watch. Sometimes that means doing stuff you don't enjoy...with a breath he pushes the situation. His hand returns to the mouth of the man, and then uses his other hand that has the other arm gripped, to maneuver his fingers to the pinky. With a sliver of brutality, he moves to snap the pinky. "If you won't unlock this, then I'll move to your friend. He seems the type that will give in after the second finger snaps. Save him some pain and just type in the password with your good hand." Seventeen keeps him right in front of the terminal, expecting compliance...or he starts breaking more fingers.
Danzo Katou	One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes. He's taking too long. She can't keep this up all day. The more she exerts her genpou on this many engineers at a time, the more she risks one of them tuning out and doing something to disrupt the illusion. The enemy catching onto the ruse at this stage is unacceptable. They'll come looking for the missing 'Eli'. With the 'fire' put out, and the engineers running the air scrubbers and counting heads, the mystery woman ceases focusing on the site of the original blaze, expecting that the mess of fire control substances plastered all over it will obscure the lack of stains and damage now. Slowly, bit by bit, letting the illusion of the smoggy corridors slip, she instead focuses on recreating Crow in his disguise from memory. Namely, all that detailed analysis she'd done on the train. The spitting image of 'Eli', in his overalls and belt, wanders out from the cargo platform, jogging across the thoroughfare at a respectable distance from the fire site; close enough to be immediately spotted by anyone looking for him, too far to call out to, at just the right distance that someone might catch him if they chase him down a little. Illusory Eli squeezes his way through the thickest of the crowd, going around the damage control gathering, then into the gantries, around several blind corners, and then disappears at an intersection. "Please, hurry up."
Nova Terra	According to Riku, the red sensors appear to respond to motion. Which Nova is most definitely well suited to deal with. They still don't know what the blue sensors are for, so Nova will do what she can to avoid them. But she leaves the other two to figure out those ones, while Nova begins to move through the areas that are monitored by the red sensors. Placing the bombs with a little more confidence.
Riku	EXTERNAL TEAM: The red sensor grid interaction results in basically what Riku expected. By the time the camera drone is ejected, Riku is well out of the way without leaving a trace for the drone to find. He watches the pattern of the camera drone scout around, and after it leaves, he lands back on the ship. Radio comms open, shortwave tightbeams to the pair. <Red is motion, camera based.> He states. Nova will know what to do with that. The Heartbrand clambers around the outside some more, trying to isolate a blue sensor. This time, a screwdriver goes flying through the blue sensor area. May as well repeat the process and see what changes.
Big Boss	EXTERNAL TEAM: The screwdriver goes flying through the blue sensor. It doesn't do anything. No camera comes out. It is /not/ motion-based. It is likely not temperature-based, since there'd be heat on the screwdriver from his suit. Nova is able to plant the red sensor bombs easily with her suit, which is not pinged by motion detectors. The problem is how to solve blue. Do they just risk it?
Gaonoir	Gaonoir was the predator, and the bomb locations were his prey. That abstract mindset helped keep his focus on the task that needed precision timing as he teleport-stalked his way between the moving sensors to get some more basic position bombs placed. Then moves to a blind spot to pause and catch his nonexistant breath. This was working, but too much chain-porting would eventually drain his endurance. While re-evaluating his own operation he takes a moment to check on... well Riku was the only visible ally (cuz Nova Ghosting), who's figured out how the red ones respond. Okay, remote cameras. That means there's a small window to get out of range if one is tripped. Still best to avoid tripping one if necessary, though they may need to for some of the non-moving ones. Nova at least has some info to proceed with his invisibleness with. Gaonoir turns his attention to the blue ones. Squints a bit, studying... and feeling a bit out of it without his more analytical human sidekick here for help. But he had insisted this was too risky of a mission for Erika to play tag along on. And they may need to resort to more.. ambigious methods if things go bad. She's not ready to be broken in that way yet. All the same, he tries to pick up on some vague clue on what the blue ones do. Though short of tripping one he might not have much luck. Riku repeating the trick he did before might help though.
Big Boss	HELM TEAM: 17 snaps a pinky finger. Big Boss says nothing, watching intently as he tells him to type with his big free hand. The man, after muffled screaming, ends up typing as requested. It's a password that couldn't have been easily guessed, too, so he was useful. Unless 17 elects to take control of the terminal, Big Boss moves over to it, and starts looking for the punch queue. Once he finds it, he writes up a ticket for temporary access, and pushes it in. They're going to have to wait, but not forever - they have enough time to take care of this guy and move in, as Big Boss whispers to 17. "Good work. You do have it in you." Prong one, accomplished. ENGINE TEAM: Crow is running out of time, so he speeds himself up. He can plant the bombs faster, but that engineer's about to give up, when he spots 'Eli'. He moves to try and chase after him, and gets pulled way from calling for security. Crow is just barely able to plant the last bomb, right under the wire, right before the cameras would be focused on again. He has enough time to pull out, and try and get as far away from the core as possible before the detonation. Prong two, accomplished.
Android 17	Seventeen lets Big Boss access the terminal, he takes the time to move the man. After a moment, he moves beyond human speed to slam his fist into the stomach of the man, aiming to knock the air out of him and send him into the realm of unconsciousness. With a breath, he lets the man drop carefully. He gives a side glance towards Boss as he gives him a compliment. "I don't like it. That doesn't mean I won't do it. Let's just get this done with, there are lives on the line."
C	Sliding his forearm across his forehead, Crow wipes it clear of sweat and runs a hand through his equally moist white mane. "Jeez...talk about a fire under the butt." he complains, lightly. But there's no time for chit-chat, he had to leave engineering, and fast. Pulling his bandana away and stuffing it in his overall pockets, he set off towards the magtrain. He kept his eyes peeled for the guy who'd been looking for 'Eli', but thankfully he seems to have gotten lost somewhere. Crow boards the magtrain back to central, letting out a quiet sigh now that he wasn't in danger of being blown to bits along with the rest of engineering. "Poor them," he muttered. But, collateral damage was inevitible, and this was ultimately just a hazard of their job. It was hardly the worst thing he resigned to do to accomplish a goal.
Danzo Katou	Seeing the real Crow slip out --and she knows it is the real one, for the false one is her own fabrication-- the woman in the shadows breathes a sigh of relief. Releasing her grip on the giant flywheel casing beside her, she falls out of the improbably small gap between them, contorting to smoothly fall through the cracks, soundlessly touch down on the deck, walk into the dark, and then disappear without a trace. Unnoticed, unmissed. The last of the smoke fades into the ether. Crow takes the long train ride back without his companion from before, the seat directly across from him now empty. It almost feels strange, without that stare on him the entire way, the train car is somehow sadly vacant. Yet, up at the bridge: Big Boss requests a status report on the engines through his radio. Crow answers him through the same channel, but a second answer comes back to him without it. The soft, quiet voice of a woman replies to him from a few paces behind his right shoulder. A lady in red is knelt on the floor, bent to one knee, eyes downward. She tugs the rim of her scarf down, and says: "It is done, my lord. I am ready to commence operations the moment you give the signal."
Riku	EXTERNAL TEAM: The blue doesn't respond to it. Riku didn't expect it, but at the same time he needed to check. Instead, he reaches out with his shadow, the darkness spreading out over the hull of the machine and simply... poking into the blue area. Maybe it reacts to magic? If nothing else, if it doesn't react, they can use their general telekinetic abilities of some type or another and just affix the bombs at a distance.
Gaonoir	So the blue ones aren't motion sensative. At least not to the degree the red ones were. Gaonoir considers this. Something about it not reacting doesn't sit right with him, even if not motion sensative that seems too easy. Something almost sloppy that could be exploited. Might be time to just push that risk factor. They don't have forever to puzzle this out thoroughly. Time was of the essense. Caution was good, but hesitation kills a soldier faster than attacks do according to Duftmon. But it would seem some caution has paid off, as allies come in with just the intel they need, that would of missed had they rushed. It proves his hunch right that there was something less obvious to the lack of a response. But this tidbit? He can work with it. Already in the right form too. <"Okay. I've got this."> Gaonoir comms the other two. Pressure sensative, he can work with that! By deploying his jetpack. Not for full flight, but with just enough power to lift him off the ground to hover past pressure sensors, quick enough to maneuver around other sensors if need be, and place the necessary bombs.
Big Boss	HELM TEAM: "Fine." Big Boss replies to 17, as the access pass is granted, which he pockets. He doesn't use the door just yet, though - don't want to sound the alarm. As the woman dressed in red appears behind him, Big Boss doesn't turn around. "Excellent work. Your legend is accurate, Danzo Kato." ENGINE TEAM: Crow can get safely back towards the lobby. His job is done. EXTERNAL TEAM: Planting the final bombs now that they know that blue is pressure, using jetpacks, the external team can start making their retreat, working around that. When everyone's in the clear, Big Boss sounds over his radio. <"Get ready to detonate in five. Five. Four. Three. Two. One."> Boom. The power core is obliterated by a score of bombs, killing everyone immediately outside it, turning off many lights, and taking down the engine. Magtrain rails go careening as security sirens start going off. Meanwhile... The exterior bombs explode, bursting the hull and sending hundreds of people instantly into the vacuum. The Ad Coelum lurches, and immediately starts plummeting planetside. It'll take a while before it hits, but it's enough time to know that the ship is doomed. The mission is almost a success... As Big Boss draws his rifle, moves through the door into the helm, and starts firing at security. 17 is given a chance to act. The two can quickly sweep through the mundane security and take over the direct helm, preventing the ship from being immediately righted. It's showtime.