A Night's Complex Encounter


*R-Type* [["Your joyous time has come. Follow us. You are to be prepared for your wedding."]]

-} *R-Type* *snrk*

*R-Type* [["...I'm lost, Aura. Nothing can save me now."]]

{INServ} [[Okay, here's the setup. Ian and Giri smited the Bal on the 25th of July, 3 days after they departed Citidas. Sadly, the trip was still about 2 weeks, and once they got to Rhadymanthis they faced another two weeks BACK. So they got back around the 14th of August. Fortunately, the Angelic folks on the station were able to hold the line as word got back to the demons that Aram's heart had shattered, and he likely hadn't redeemed....]]

{INServ} [[(basically, EVERYBODY was trying to keep quiet. So as not to let more of the opposite side know what was going on. CYA across the board.)]]

{R-Type} [["Everything's too perfect... and much too quiet."]]

{INServ} [[But Ian and Giri got back, and kept moving around trying to do their jobs... after all, there -were- a few other guards ont he ship, and it wasn't -100%- certain that it was THEM, of course... but you know how it goes.]]

{INServ} [[So, now it's a few days after they've gotten back... and Ian is getting back into the patrolling grove.]]

{R-Type} [[Or groove, as the case may be.]]

{INServ} [[And with that all stated... I get da cam. *wg*]]

[[======================================]]

* Early evening patrol in the Maintenance Level of Citidas Station. August 17th, 2071. You probably can't get a more BORING patrol on the entire station. It's hardly even inhabited at this time of evening, as shifts have yet to fully change, and it's moving onto third watch anyway.

* Security Officer Brian Scheurs -- aka Ian, Malakite of Lightning -- yawns widely as he moves lazily down the corridors. Both the yawn and the lazy posture are completely feigned, of course; he's got too many things to watch out for.

* Not much to watch out for. Once or twice he sees a semi-familiar face going off shift and waving to him as they head for one of the elevators... and the occasional small maint-bot trundling around, dispatched by the Maintenance Level computers to other sections of the station.

* Brian waves to people, watches the bots as they go about their business. He should be glad for the silence, he knows, but still.

* Nice station. Quiet station. You'd almost believe it was a peaceful station too, even with the explosion and chaos a month+ back. At least the majority of the damage had been able to be patched up by the time he got back.

* The rest, of course, is still being repaired by the maint-bots and repair-bots with the extra supplies carried on the return trip. A maint bot like the one that's been following Brian for the past few minutes...

* Brian notices this, yes, and pauses to step out of the way of the bot's apparent path.

* The maint-bot just trundles along past Brian and heads down the corridor and takes the turn towards one of the elevators.

* Brian watches it go, shrugs inwardly, and moves along the same path since he's headed that way anyhow.

* The maint-bot, by the time Ian makes the turn, isn't seen. A single security cam does its usual pan and scan at the corner.

* Ian, Brian, -we- know who we're talking about, here...

* Brian hrms. Fairly fast-moving bot, that. He glances up at the camera and gives a quick salute to anyone who might be watching the monitor, and takes the path toward the elevators.

* Another maint-bot, carrying another part, trundles along behind Brian on the same route.

* Brian steps out of the way if he needs to, watching it go.

* It rolls on happily to another part of the level.

{Brian} . o O (*sigh* Maybe I'm getting paranoid.) *keeps moving*

* It's nice and quiet for a while. No bots. Then a quiet hum behind him as he's halfway down one of the corridors...

{Brian} hm? *pauses, glances back toward the sound*

* A maint-bot or a repair-bot would be expected by this point. Even one of the 'Hoppers', the mobile welding platforms would be expected down here. ... Not one of the Security-1-Bot's, slowly floating along and keeping pace with Brian, its unioptic glowing redly.

* Brian arches an eyebrow, slowing his pace a bit and regarding the bot.

* The Sec-1-bot continues its pace, -not- adjusting to Brian's change. You know... the Ion Pulse cannons are supposed to be safed normally... -not- on Standby.

{Brian} . o O (What the hell?) *follows the bot, hanging back a bit and just observing for the moment*

* The Sec-1-Bot continues approaching, once again keeping pace with Brian, as he's still in front of it... As it fills up most of the hallway due to its bulk, he can't duck around it unless he ducks down a side corridor.

* It's obvious the bot isn't going to stop without a direct order. Brian looks for a suitable place to step aside.

* Yup, there's a side corridor. Brian ducks aside it just fine, and it glides past along its original route.

{Brian} . o O (Something is not 100% right here.) *he falls in behind the bot as it glides past and unclips his radio*

* And at the other end of the side corridor, there's another quiet hum... as another Sec-1-Bot appears as it turns the corridor, headed for Brian at about the same rate of the first.

* The first one slowly glides away from Brian as he's now following it.

* Brian pauses as he hears that other bot mobilizing and glances back at it. He keys his radio "1-348s to Central, over."

* No response. Not even static. Have you replaced your radio battery recently?

* Brian blinks, and checks the battery indicator on his radio.

* All things are green. It SHOULD have picked up. And the Sec-1 bot is getting closer, and the one he was following has turned around another corridor, out of sight...

* Brian glances back at the bot behind him, maintaining his pace but feeling a little agitated. He keys his radio one more time. "1-348s to Central. Respond, please."

* No response. The Sec-1-bot continues to approach, and THIS one has its pulse cannons on standby, not safe, too.

*R-Type* Hm. Maybe he should talk to SHODAN or try and get a report from one of the bots, if he can. *wg*

-} *R-Type* He can certainly try... might want to use a nearby terminal, not his radio.

*R-Type* (back) righto.

{Brian} *m* Okay, something's definitely not right here. *he looks for a terminal*

* There's a terminal a little ways down one of the corridors.

* Brian heads for it, getting his passcard out.

* The passcard is happily read, and the TriOp logo spins up, ready for a query.

* Brian connects to the security subsystem and requests a sitrep on any SecBot acitivity in Maintenance.

* There are plenty of maintbots expected to be on Maintenence duty in the main halls. The junction rooms have their usual SecBot patrols, but the junction rooms are sealed. There are no reported SecBots in the main hallways.

* Of course, that SecBot that's just turned the corner to the hallway Brian's now in might have -other- ideas...

* Brian blinks, and requests a confirmation. No SecBots at all on this level with active weaponry? He then looks at the approaching SecBot to see if -it- has active weapons too.

* Why yes! It does!

* So does that OTHER one that's turned around from the other direction...

{Brian} . o O (Uh oh.) [He sends a query direct to SHODAN, reporting the presence of the active SecBots in maintenance and inquiring if there is an incident or malfunction.]

{S.H.O.D.A.N.} #Security Camera 4133 and 4134 report no Security-one-bots at your location.#

* And they continue to approach... looking like they're ready to sandwich the security guard at the terminal. .... there -is- a corrodor he can take, a bit closer to one of them, that's a T-intersection.

* Brian grumbles inwardly, quickly logs out, and ducks toward the aforementioned corridor.

* It's easily ducked down. There's no cross-corridors until you get to the end, which is another T-intersection, but there's a door or two that you could try to open with your passcard once you get to the other T-intersection. You never knew the hoverfan hum could sound so -ominous- before.. but it gets quieter as you gain distance, and the two Sec-1-bots spend a moment deciding which of them will go first in pursuing Brian down the corridor.

* Brian takes advantage of their indecision to get some distance, and has a go at trying to open the closer of the aforementioned doors.

* *pleep* The door opens. He can duck in easily.

* Brian, what a surprise, does exactly that.

* The door closes behind him. It's dark inside. Brian can now realize that he's in a storage closet. *pause* a -small- storage closet. At least there's not many supplies in it.

* Brian notes this, and mutters inwardly, pulling his flashlight from his belt so he can take better stock of his surroundings.

* Closet. Small. Metal door in front. Some supplies. Wooden door in back.

* Oh, and slowly approaching sounds of Sec-1-bots, more than two, and didn't your brief indicate they had decent biosensors?

{Brian} . o O (feh... not much useful stuff h-- wait a minute... wooden door?) *glances back toward the metal door* (...shit, can't go -that- way...) *considers for about two seconds, and then tries the wooden door*

* The wooden door is a nice wooden door like you'd get in any sort of apartment. Doorknob, no real lock, the works. It opens easily.

* It also opens outwards away from the closet, and not inwards, so at least you're not squished when trying to open it.

*** Visions connected at Wed Apr 18 7:15 PM PDT from adsl-64-223-145-87.mannh.adsl.bellatlantic.net.

* Brian, in the interest of staying clear of those SecBot scanners, steps through that door.

* And beyond that door... is a hallway. A long one. A -very- long one, lined with many other wooden doors, and 1 security guard/malakite in the middle of it, still holding the doorknob.

* Brian blinks, several times, standing there while his mind tries to parse this rather abrupt change in scenery.

* The hum is rather louder from behind the storage closet door, and you can imagine that the SecBots are lining up, weapons primed...

* Brian has enough presence of mind to hear that noise, and promptly gets out of the line of sight from the closet door, pulling his sidearm out.

* The wooden door closes as Brian moves aside to pull out his sidearm.

* And all is quiet.

* Brian honestly isn't concerned about that at the moment, merely waits to see if anything is about to happen.

* Nothing happens. If there was a tumbleweed about, it'd roll by.

{Brian} ...... *after a few seconds of absolutely nothing happening, he tries to open the door again, gun poised for instant use*

* The door opens freely. There is still a storage closet on the other side. Still supplies. Metal door closed. No hum.

* Brian looks at the inside of the storage closet for a long moment. Lowering his gun, he looks around at that long hallway again. . o O (okay... wooden door... opens into big hallway full of -more- wooden doors... neither of these are features of Citidas Station......)

* There is no way on earth that this hallway could be in the station. It just goes on too long. If you were in -other- places, perhaps, where space and dimension don't exactly apply... but this is too solid, too real for that.

{Brian} . o O (...and even if they -were- features, no way in hell could this even fit -in- the... station......) *his thought train comes to a halt as that sinks in, and he remembers what Aram had been ranting and raving about* (...*uh oh*...looks as though that lunatic actually accomplished something......)

* The hallway doesn't bother commenting on Brian's little personal revelations.

{Brian} . o O (*shit*... I need to tell Boss about this *pronto*... but is it safe to go back through?...)

* You can't tell without opening the wooden door again, poking your head through the metal supply closet door, and hoping to heaven that the SecBots aren't just having turned off their hoverfans to wait...

*R-Type* [[The mildly flummoxed angel wonders if he should do the thing of running around in Maintenance like a human prolly would, or just vessel-dropping and getting someplace marginally safer, despite the complications it would create. *swl* ]]

-} *R-Type* [[Well, it depends on wether the player wants to let some extra time pass by quick exploration down this hallway and later explain 'I snuck into a maint duct.' and edit the logs. There -is- an accessway that would allow him to use that explination.]]

*R-Type* -Aha-. I did not know that, Ed.

-} *R-Type* [[Surely, even the 'bots wouldn't wait THAT long...]]

*R-Type* Riiiiight. *wl*

* Brian considers that situation carefully, decides he'd better wait for a bit before he tries going back into his own world -- weird concept, that. He lets the wooden door close again, and looks for something with which he can mark or otherwise identify it.

* Oh, hey, a TriOp Corp Pen.

* Amazing what you can find in pockets.

{Brian} . o O (Excellent.) *he uses said pen to mark the door with a crude TriOp logo*

* The Door is Marked. A wonder of modern technology.

{Brian} . o O (right... well, I may as well poke around a bit here until those bots get bored and leave, then I'll have to say I went into a maintenance shaft and get creative with the logs... and find out what the hell was up with those bots coming after me in the -first- place. Would be very bad if anyone got hurt on my shift.)

* Brian sighs, and chooses a direction to walk in.

* The direction is chosen. As Brian walks along, he finds many unmarke doors... a few marked ones... then more marked ones, some with large 'x', othes with symbols unfamiliar or normal.

{Brian} . o O (...guess I'm not the only one who's ended up here... wherever 'here' is.) *he looks at some of the symbols more closely*

* Well, at least some are english, some are pictograms. And various 'X's scattered about. "Ski Mountain", "Bespin", "Library"...

{R-Type} [Brian hrms, considers for a moment, and decides to try opening one of the doors with an 'X' on it.

* Wow. Lava field. Volcano. HOT.

* Brian quickly closes that door. "Ack!" . o O (okay, 'X' means 'really bad idea'. lesson learned.)

*R-Type* [["Whoa. Wrong book."]]

-} *R-Type* Heh. :)

*R-Type* [["Klaatu-- Barada-- n--...... uh... noodle... no, definitely an N word... uh... necktie..."]]

* The door closes. Nasty lava locked away.

* Brian sighs, and decides to backtrack a bit, see if any of the doors in the opposite direction have been marked.

* When he goes the other way, past his own marked door, they get marked less and less. And hmm... wasn't there a door at the -end- of the hallway in the other direction.

* Brian hmmms, turns around one more time, and heads back in the direction that seemed to have a finite end.

* And he gets closer, and behind that door at the end, he can hear voices and the Door is marked 'Taervac's Bar and Grill'...

*R-Type* [[hoo boy, Bar time. *swg* ]]

-} *R-Type* go ahead and step through, and interact! :) And dont' forget to give a nice description for the nice people... ^_^

*R-Type* wheeeeeee ^_^ ^_-;

* Brian hrms, glances back toward 'his' door, shrugs, and tries opening the door to "Taervac's".

-} *R-Type* And I'll close this connection once he steps through... we'll pick up him returning to the station another night, whenever he exits through Knight.

*R-Type* Roight. *wg*

* INServ and the door opens on light, and he can head through...

* Brian does so.

*R-Type* So which specific Door was it he came through? Knight?

-} *R-Type* Knight Hall, yup.

*R-Type* Cool.

* And as he steps through, we change focus to elsewhere.


In Nomine 2070