Elite roleplay: Off station

OFF STATION

Your ship, deep space, anything that is not happening inside the Citi Gateway or Ingaba...

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27 Oct 2024, 2:32am
The unmistakable sounds of a struggle being fed from Maul’s suit stuttered over the comm, offering Vasil no insight as to what was happening on the Anansi. Shots fired, the growl of jets engaging, then curses and grunts over the intermittent comm until the feed went dead.

Two things crashed into Vasil’s thoughts. A comm malfunction from either the melee, or from a bullet to the head. Vasil gave better odds to Maul’s brains now being an abstract painting on the Anansi’s walls. With the Umbrella’s momentum carrying it toward the security zone around the Anansi, Vasil faced the decision to go in, or ease off and reassess the situation. He’d not yet attracted any attention. The safe and logical thing to do was vector away from the security zone.

He reached toward the thruster controls. But what if he was wrong. He’d misjudged and miscalculated so many things recently. A yellow light on his command console began blinking, warning him that he was approaching a restricted zone.

Vasil shuttered the Umbrella’s heat vanes and deactivated the shields, going dark. The blinking yellow light changed to a steady, angry red as the Umbrella crossed into restricted space. He’d only have a few minutes before the heat became unbearable and internal systems began failing, but it was a few minutes just to be sure if Maul had been shot.

Time dragged, marked by the steady increase of internal heat and made more unbearable by the comm’s silence. Vasil checked the heat levels. Damage to the FSD and life support was escalating from the increasing heat. It was time to go. Just then, Maul’s damaged radio broke the silence.

"Vasil...eye... a pod." Seconds later an escape pod jetted from the Anansi.

A jettisoned escape pod would set off alarms on the Anansi and security patrols would be arriving to investigate. There was no reason to stay dark. “All systems online,” Vasil barked to the COVAS. “Plot course. Random system. Preference: Imperial. Lock and spool FSD.”

Vasil threw open the heat radiators and shunted max power to the shields. He locked on the escape pod and activated the stand-by collector limpet. “Hang on!" he told Maul over the comm. "It’s gonna be a rough ride, but I got ya!”

The limpet rocketed toward the escape pod and snagged it with all of the speed and violence of a falcon snatching a pigeon out of the air. Vasil slowed the Umbrella to a safe recovery speed, allowing the limpet to secure the pod in cargo without breaking Maul's neck.

Slowing down meant security drew closer. Sensors indicated two inbound contacts at extreme sensor range. If Vasil let the ship cool before jumping, security would get close enough for an identity lock. With heat alarms blaring, Vasil aligned with the jump target and engaged the FSD.

To hinder possible wake tracking and throw off anyone trying to follow them, Vasil did not wait for the ship to cool down between jumps. After three quick jumps with ever-increasing heat, the Umbrella, reactor and engines glowing, arrived the Imperial system chosen by the COVAS.

“Full core vent,” Vasil told the COVAS in order to fully expose the reactor vanes for venting into space.

Vasil locked on the systems nav beacon and headed toward it. They were in one of Patreus’ systems. Nothing on the Umbrella had gone undamaged by overheating and it was in no shape for a fight, but if someone had managed to follow them and wanted to start one, Vasil was certain the Patreus Sentinels would end it quickly enough.


Last edit: 27 Oct 2024, 2:42am
27 Oct 2024, 3:13pm
Before the entering the restroom

Stuffing her long straight black hair into the stupid summer hat Willow had swiped off the rack, she waited for her pad to uplink to the nav-network. Ripping the plastic off the foundation cap, she squeezed a big blob of the stuff onto her fingers then slapped the thick gloop all over her alabaster white skin. While trying to make her face look a more natural color, she watch the signal work its way around the nav-network till is reached the system where raiders took their carriers for repair.

Sending a message directly to Maul or Vasil would lead Golden Jackal directly to them, so it would just have to be an open message to the entire system. She just had to hope the guys got it.

"Guys, I’ve like, done fucked up"

That was it. If they came, they came, but Willow had to come up with a plan to get off the station in case she was on her own all the way.


Last edit: 27 Oct 2024, 7:35pm
28 Oct 2024, 2:29am
It was not until Vasil had started checking through the Umbrella’s damage reports that he saw the blue-highlighted message from Willow. Willow’s message had been cached while the Umbrella was in system with the Anansi but he never received a message alert since it was a designated a system message rather than a personal one. If the COVAS had not highlighted it as coming from a contact Vasil would not have noticed it and the message would have eventually been purged from the logs, unread.

::Willow Thorn:: Guys, I’ve like, done fucked up

Short, and sent to an open channel rather than directly. Willow was not the type of person to mistakenly send message to a system relay. Something had to be wrong.

“Something’s up with Willow,” said Vasil, immediately starting to plot a route to Summerland. “We need to get back to her.”

He glanced at the ship systems console. Fuel looked good enough to get to Summerland without having to scoop any. The internals were another story. Everything had been damaged by overheating but the generator was the worst, operating at only 80%. The Umbrella could function with as little as 65%, but it would need at least 77% to handle the load of fully deployed weapons and defenses. That three percent power reserve would evaporate instantly if someone got in a good shot on the Umbrella's generator.

Vasil locked in the jump path and started shutting down non-essential automated systems like auto-piloting and docking assist to get more reserve power buffer just in case shooting started. “I swear, Goodness is starting to be more trouble than he is worth,” he grumbled.


Last edit: 28 Oct 2024, 2:38am
28 Oct 2024, 12:07pm
Kasumi Goto“Ready?”

And I hit the button. If all hell was about to break loose, hopefully we could wrap that up quickly and get comms locked down to delay any calls for help. And alarms, at that, with this being the security station.

The place did feel more abandoned than in active operation… but somehow, I suspected that to be on purpose.


The door slid open with a hiss, unveiling a dimly lit room lined with rows of monitors and control panels. The air was thick with the smell of stale electronics, accompanied by the beeps and hums of various devices. In the low light, my partner's shield shimmered faintly in the entrance.

Two guards were stationed in the room, deeply engrossed in their tasks at the terminals. One guard, a burly man with a stern expression, sat at a console near the center of the room, typing furiously on the keyboard. His eyes were glued to a screen, monitoring a series of data feeds. The other guard, a leaner figure with sharp features, was standing by a control panel on the far side of the room, adjusting dials and switches, seemingly fine-tuning equipment.

As the door opened, the atmosphere shifted abruptly. Both guards looked up in surprise, their faces reflecting a mix of shock and alertness. The leaner guard, standing by the control panel, instinctively reached for his holstered weapon, his eyes narrowing as he assessed the situation.

“Intruders!” the leaner guard shouted, his voice echoing through the room.

“Take cover!“ yelled the burly guard, throwing himself from his chair behind a console.
28 Oct 2024, 12:34pm
‘Well, that… was expected.’, I thought to myself, and, taking the rifle back into two hands, opened fire on the smaller of the two guards, who was not the one that’d ducked into cover immediately and instead reached for a weapon. Closer to that control panel, too, he was a bigger risk of locking down the system and preventing us from accessing it.

Bullets riddled his body, and life left it soon after. I waved my companion forward with the right hand, telling her to go in, while I kept my weapon pointed to discourage any movement. Needed to get rid of that other guard before he raised an alarm, and she was still quicker on the feet than me with the additional luggage, plus some solid armor and helmet - and, thankfully for me, the helmet also obscured my face.


Last edit: 28 Oct 2024, 2:14pm
28 Oct 2024, 1:56pm
I watched as my companion’s bullets found their mark with precision, the lean guard collapsing to the ground near the control panel. The immediate threat neutralized, I knew we had to act fast. The other guard was still a danger, and we couldn’t risk him raising an alarm.

'Go!' my companion signaled, waving me forward. I nodded and darted into the room, gripping my shotgun tightly. The remaining guard, crouched behind a console, fired a few shots from his pistol in my general direction, but I was too quick. The bullets whizzed past and hit a wall panel harmlessly.

I leaped over a small console while returning fire with a deafening blast from my shotgun. The guard ducked even lower, trying to avoid the spray of pellets. As I landed on the other side and was about to take proper aim, I saw him reach for something on his belt. My heart skipped a beat as I realized it was a grenade.

“He’s got a grenade!” I shouted and, with a surge of adrenaline, fired another round from point blank. The blast caught the guard in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. The grenade clattered away, and I quickly moved to secure it.

"Clear," I gasped, struggling to catch my breath. "We... might need to... move quickly." The guards hadn't sounded any alarm, but it was hard to tell if the noise of battle hadn't been heard elsewhere.


Last edit: 28 Oct 2024, 2:29pm
28 Oct 2024, 2:27pm
“Yes.”, I answered, walking in myself now, with the immediate area clear. “Is, there any access point, here? If, not, move on. Further in.”

“And, may want, to look out, for more guards. Unlikely, nobody heard.”

Anybody on this level and in a room close enough would definitely have noticed the exchange of gunfire, and likely be coming over to investigate. From this point on, we were on the clock.


Last edit: 28 Oct 2024, 2:54pm
28 Oct 2024, 3:23pm
I nudged the guard lying on the ground lightly with my foot. "I wonder who that was. Reaching for a grenade in this situation isn't exactly what you'd expect from a run-of-the-mill security guard. He would probably have killed himself and me at least... It's more the sort of thing you'd expect from the military than a guard."

I stepped closer to the console that the sturdy guard had been working on before we turned up, and glanced at my companion.

"How about we start here? This seems to be the main console."
28 Oct 2024, 3:49pm
“Nothing ordinary, about Azimuth.”, I remarked, giving the dead body a disdainful glance. “Anyway, let’s see …”

Moving over to where I’d shot down the other guard - a few holes in the wall from where the bullets had pierced the body and carried on - I examined the console in question and, seeing something which appeared like a physical connection port, fished for my hacking device.

“Ok. Am, connected.”, I announced when I put it in. “Should, be in, soon.”

I was glad at not having to share this space yet, instead getting it all for myself and my wide lower half. This was also seemingly a one person work station, so I’d definitely have to move aside - or to the opposite side - if it got us anything useful.
29 Oct 2024, 1:07am
Just as I was about to reply to my companion, a loud, jarring beep echoed through the room. The computer screens flickered, and a stern, robotic voice announced, “Unauthorized access detected. Deploying Zara Black ICE defensive measures.”

Red lights began to flash, casting an ominous glow over the room. The monitors displayed warnings, and a progress bar appeared, indicating the deployment of advanced security countermeasures. The messages 'Segmenting and isolating compromised sections of the network to prevent further breaches' and 'Automatically encrypting data to render it useless to intruders' appeared on the main screen.

I figured that an AI presence seemed to take over the system, its digital presence insidiously spreading like tendrils through the network in order to safeguard it.

“Great, just what we needed,” I muttered under my breath.

“Kasumi, watch out! Don't let it infect you!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the noise and growing sense of dread. The stakes had just escalated dramatically, and we were now racing against a formidable adversary.
29 Oct 2024, 1:44am
"Pff. I have means, of my own."

Tapping on my wrist computer, I connected EDI directly to the hack tool, basically telling her to have a go. And while this system was perhaps suited to fending off hacking attempts from humans, I wanted to see it fare against an actual artificial intelligence. Though I wouldn't tell my companion that I was using or had one, at least, not yet... and if I hadn't already, which I couldn't remember in the moment.

"Let's see, how you like this."

We'd know in a moment if my response had any measure of success. On the scale and speeds which these systems operated at, a lot could happen in even just one second. Was I worried about any intrusions into my stuff... not really, knowing that having an AI equally presented security on top of the firewalls present in it. And those were fairly up to standard too, given my interest in the subject matter.
29 Oct 2024, 3:19pm
All monitors simultaneously displayed lines of code racing across the screen as whatever Kasumi activated maneuvered through the network, countering the Black ICE’s defenses. For a moment, there was a tense standoff, then a breakthrough - it looked like it found some kind of exploit and began to disable the Black ICE’s countermeasures.

“Kasumi, I think we’re getting somewhere!” I called out, my voice tinged with excitement. The Black ICE’s digital tendrils began to retract, their influence on the system seemingly fading as some of the monitors returned to their normal state, displaying data or camera images.

I figured that Kasumi's tool was gaining the upper hand, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. The red lights and alarms were still a reminder of the urgency of our situation. We needed to act quickly before the Black ICE could launch a counterattack.

"Try to disable the external message exchange to prevent an alarm from reaching the stations and ships in the system!" I shouted to my partner, keeping a vigilant eye on the open door for any incoming guards while frantically typing commands at the console where the burly guard had been seated, trying to gain access to the files.
29 Oct 2024, 5:33pm
"On it."

Whatever this security program was, it didn't have the upper hand right now, though it was clearly rather sophisticated, and definitely something Azimuth would design, or at least use. Still, I had a brief window of opportunity to sneak a few commands into the system. Tapping on my wrist computer again, I got EDI to shut off external and also internal comms, as well as suppress the local alert - temporarily, probably - and at least attempt to isolate the network cluster from that countermeasure, so we would have more time to snoop around, and maybe shut this thing down completely. There was a good chance the central security station could turn it on or off, at least in my mind.

"Should, have a few moments, soon.", I reported, then got ready to direct efforts at getting control of other aspects of the security system - like cameras, for one - but also keep an eye out for more security coming to investigate the disturbance.
30 Oct 2024, 6:03pm
I nodded, focusing on the task at hand. With the comms down and the local alert suppressed, we had a brief moment of relative safety. Some screens flickered to life, showing various angles of the facility.

"Looks like we've got eyes on quite some of the place," I said, cycling through the feeds. "No immediate threats, but we need to stay sharp."

Turning my attention back to the data on the console, I delved deeper into the system, uncovering files related to different research projects. One document caught my eye - a detailed map of a huge ship, highlighting key areas of interest. There were several marked locations, each labeled with cryptic names like "Vault," "Chamber of Echoes," and "Nexus". Other than that, I got the evidence we were after.

"Based on this data, I can confirm that this facility is the primary Helix production site. Furthermore, following the destruction of Lab 23, it is now the only remaining facility."

I continued to download data from the console, my personal computer filling with valuable information. Just as I was finishing up, a squad of heavily armed guards appeared on a camera feed. They were approaching our wing, their movements swift and coordinated.

"They're coming," I informed my companion, "Maybe you can close down some doors between them and us to buy us some time?"

With one last look at the console, I shut it down, erasing any trace of my presence.
30 Oct 2024, 7:35pm
"Ok. Sure."

I fished for a thing I had on my belt and, once I had it, gently pushed it into the direction of my companion, which was enough to have it go over there in the asteroid's micro-gravity.

"Shock mine. Place, in front of door."

Meanwhile, I got myself to work on sealing some passageways to limit possible approaches, leaving only two possible doors from which to enter the room, using a map to lock appropriate doors and divert their path.

Leaving only one entrance would make it too obvious that it could be trapped, but two left just enough of a chance that they would stumble across the mine - it would not take out a suited and shielded individual, but definitely really disorient them for a second or two and knock out their shields, which could be enough to kill them afterward. And if they didn't run into it, then the two doors which I left open were placed such that we could always be in cover from both angles. Any others would have to be breached, equally giving us advance warning when our 'company' was about to try crashing the party.

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