<> <> < the middle of a frozen ice plain. Amadeus' sensor says that's the place, and so she begins taking you down! That's where we'll pick up. (Go!)>> * Hestia is checking the ship's systems. Why? One, she's a systems analyst and two, electronic warfare! <> (And have been? e.g. Lexi is hallucinating, not the ship?) <> * Zeke wasn't really much help on this little mission, so he's still been down with his pad. Awww yeah. I do not understand why this situation of oddities is tolerated. * Tomas enters from the galley direction, "The computer said we lost a wing. What's going on?" * Hestia runs her hands through her hair. "I want whatever electronic warfare module is set up to do this shit without leaving a single trace of evidence." I mean, this is a computer. That doesn't even seem POSSIBLE. Never mind a freakin' igloo. 'Situation of oddities' is the understatement of the bloody century. * Zeke holo-looks at Hestia. "The strange... assaults also seem to warrant attention." * Hestia turns a level stare back at Zeke. "Those *weren't* part of your 'situation of oddities'?" * Zeke looks back at her. "Yes, they were. The igloo seemed more... normal. Do not people live in remote areas for their own aesthetic?" An igloo makes sense out here. Ice is readily available. ...on a moon of Jupiter. * Zeke pauses, then adds, "... extremely remote areas." (Yes. That's right. All that buildup so an angry old hermit carrying a matching toaster can shake his fist at you and go "GIT OFF MAH LAND") Anyhow, the answer to your question is that whoever it is, is out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a Nonsense Ridiculous Field to avoid being bothered. Our hermit doesn't want to be disturbed, it sounds. * Zeke starts to tromp out of the room. "If they are related to the strange occourances, that is more than a dislike of disturbance." * Hestia just watches him go, before saying in a sort of distant voice, "Is it me, or is something different about him lately." ( Pancake indicator low.) * Tomas nods, "I've never seen him mispell something he said. He's always so precise and robotic." (Man, we haven't even gotten there yet and Josh is already competing for the meta award.) (I ... will kill you.) * Hestia squints at Tomas for a moment, before picking up her pad and her gun and following Zeke. "...yeah." (Where our Kyle at!) * Tomas shrugs and takes a last look over the sensors before following. (I dunno where Kyle is.) (Giving him enough time to grab a drink then we move on.) (Sorry, talking to parents) <> (I shoot him.) (Murder: It's our greeting card!) (He releases the vuvuzelas.) * Tomas says out of the side of his mouth, "Well-groomed for a hermit." There is a saying amongst certain kinds of people. 'Discipline is important.' Deeper into the rabbit hole, hmm? I don't like it. ( They're hiding something.) <> "My name is Kevin Corey! Pleased to make your acquaintance! Do you mind if we step inside, it's rather cold out here!" (oh god. Two first names. This isn't going to end well..) * Zeke does not stop his approach towards the guy with the surprisingly normal name. * Tomas waves to the nice man and continues walking as well. * Hestia is walking. She is also fingering her gun. <> Well, duh, I'm pretty sure nobody *likes* the situation we're in. * Kyle heads into the igloo with the rest of the crew. * Zeke is STRONG to cold. But he goes inside as well. * Hestia heads inside. She can't shoot him from outside. <> "There. That will make it easier to talk." "As I said, my name is Kevin Corey, I'm the director of this facility. You have a lot of questions, but I'll answer whatever I can." * Tomas whispers to Kyle behind his hand, "Facility? He may not have the hermit part down, but he's got the crazy part." * Kyle smirks. * Hestia glances at Corey. "Sounds like you were expecting us." (Corey's so dreamy.) "Well, when the video feeds went down, I gathered it was a matter of time. You're all very skilled, and you were clearly capable of following the transmitter to us. That's the risk of using the S+ devices." <> "I apologize for the problems with your ship on the way in, we hadn't turned off the broadcasters yet." (... wat) * Kyle raises an eyebrow. "What's your game, then?" (Knifey Spoony.) "Observation, mainly. I can elaborate, but I'd prefer to do it downstairs, if none of you mind heading to one of the conference rooms." How about you tell us now before we're knee deep in your territory. Business card summary acceptable. * Zeke nods slowly. "It does seem smarter." <> "No offense taken, that's why I asked. We're a branch of ATC - a far, far-flung branch, but a branch nonetheless. Ms. Levinworth wanted an eye kept on you, so we just... hitched a ride on the eyes that were already watching." * Hestia eyenarrows. Corps! *music sting* (Was Levinworth one of the ones at the dinner?) (No.) (She was not.) * Kyle ah has. .oO(Amadeus would be goin' all nutso at this.) (Amadeus would be flipping the fuck out, it's why I'm sad he's not here.) Efficient. Unlike your positioning. * Hestia crosses her arms over her chest. "Let me get this straight. You were spying on us... via people ALREADY spying on us. And now you want us to pop into your igloo bunker thing on Ganymede to talk things out." (but...what if he has CANDY?!) (CANDY!) (do not want :|) You don't make a very compelling arguement, you know. "If you hadn't already figured it out, you're one of the hottest properties on Mars these days. Especially after the Duekti fiasco - public relations or no, you've proven you're capable of surviving what is probably the worst-case scenario out there. It would be weirder to think there's a corporation NOT keeping tabs on you." (Fine. What if he has delicious WOOD?!) * Zeke tilts his holohead. "While true, it is reasonable to be concerned about your motives." (also do not want :|) (SHEEP FOR WOOD!) (road out of sheep) (WOOD FOR SHEEP!) "Of course it is. But if we wanted you dead, we'd have contracted someone local to do it, or to intercept you here. At this point, all I want to do is talk. You've got questions, and I have answers I bet you could use." * Kyle considers for a moment, then nods to Hestia. * Hestia pinches the bridge of her nose. "Why the hell not. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? Also if this goes bad I'll shoot you first." "Of course." <> "Won't be but a moment." * Zeke waits for ellalator. * Kyle waits! < . Once he's passed through, he waits on the other side for you to walk through.>> * Tomas eyes the out of place stargate, "What's this?" * Zeke and the birdsect look at the environment. "Very... odd. I don't think I have seen anything like it." "Security scanner. They're littered throughout the facility." * Hestia does not appear too thrilled with any of this, but walks through anyway, because answers are more important than being thrilled. * Tomas sees Tia walk through, so it can't be that bad, can it? He follows. * Zeke looks to the scanner, and asks, "Are exo suits going to cause alerts? Because that is unavoidable." * Tomas turns to Zeke and Kyle and motions them through, "Come on. Let's find out what's going on here." "It doesn't blare sirens and flash lights, if that's what you mean. Security around here is usually lower-key than you might think." * Zeke frowns a moment, before lowering his suitcase arm enough that he can fit through with it, and walking through. "I would not want it to get confused." <> "Ah, Mr. Chezik. May ... I have a word with you? Out of earshot of your crew, but we won't go anywhere they can't see you." ( /me wishes he'd gone ahead and grabbed those cyber ears.) * Zeke's birdsect is looking around as Zeke keeps frowning, and he gestures. "Go." <> * Hestia looks at Zeke very, very intently. Out of earshot of your crew, huh? * Tomas is not suspicious of his crewmate Zeke, so he continues on as told. * Zeke doesn't respond to Hestia, although the birdsect looks back at her. (I'm bloody well suspicious!) <> * Tomas raises an eyebrow, "We meet again, Toaster." He moves closer to examine it. * Zeke's birdsect then stops watching Hestia, as something Kevin says draws all its attention. <> (Sorry, was talking to parents again) * Tomas's eyes go wide and he jumps back. "Kevin. This toaster is growling at me." Don't talk to strange appliances in the subterranean igloo security bunker, please. <> I didn't say nothin'! <> * Kyle whistles as he waits. "So. Demonic toasters. Reminds me of the Demonic Toasters from Algeria VI." I never saw that one. How did they stop them? Apparently toasters don't like tofu. <> * Tomas falls back, dodging the flying bread Neo-style. Presumably time slows down. * Kyle glances over at the conversation between Kevin and Zeke. (And then falls on his ass.) * Hestia just... watches all this. "The pay for this job is not nearly enough to explain any of this." * Hestia seems... bizarrely tense for some reason. * Tomas rises from his wicked dodge, "Kevin. The toaster shot at me." <> * Tomas glowers at the toaster as it retreats, "Kevin. The toaster ran off." (Kevin's not your mother, Tomas.) (Kevin. Zeke won't stop making fun of me.) (This is so disconcerting given Kevin's my real name.) (I did think of that.) (Kevin. Zeke's making creepy holofaces at me.) (DON'T MAKE ME TURN THIS GAME AROUND! D:<) * Hestia watches Kevin and Zeke talk forever, looking around. "So why does ATC need a facility under an igloo on Ganymede, one wonders..." 'cuz it's away from all their other stuff. So? You could get that on Mars. Plus only shadow or grey ops would need to be SO out of the public eye they've got an emitter that screws with starship sensors. Maybe you hit the nail on the head, then. (Finishing up with Mecha, sorry.) <> "Sorry, there were a few technical details I needed to discuss with Mr. Chezik. Shall we move on?" * Zeke did indeed walk back towards the group. The birdsect's still watching him, though, and he himself is frowning. * Kyle nods. "Let's." * Hestia is looking at Zeke as she walks. "Yes. Let's." * Zeke's holohead nods slightly. The birdsect looks at him for a moment, then resumes looking around. <> (So it's covered in oil?) (ohhhhhhhhhhh sick burn on bp) (ICE BURN) (Are the seats Zeke friendly?) (Yes.) (ICE BURN) * Tomas takes a seat near the cookies and examines them closely for eyes and flying chocolate chips or macadamia nuts. * Zeke sits down in a seat, then, putting his suitcase down next to him first. * Kyle takes a seat at a random seat and gets comfortable. <> <> "I'll start, then. ATC was the bidder who sent you to Metallica and Arcturus IX." (arcturus IX = icenorks?) (Yes.) (er no) <> (*opens the galaxy map*) An... early investor. "We - as in me and the people here - wanted to get a foot on Metallica as soon as we could." Why such urgency? I dunno, it's a pretty cool place if you ask me. "Exactly! It's a fascinating planet. We got in trouble for it, since ATC was only supposed to be bidding to keep up appearances, but we couldn't resist." * Zeke frowns again. "This makes it extremely likely you were aware of what was on the planet before we went there, which seems otherwise impossible." ...'to keep up appearances'? (Two important statements in one burst!) Yeah, but still, if you know where we're going... <> "We have the same data which I guess that you have now, which - if I am correct - you've seen is helpful but vague." <> "If the corporate spies in ATC didn't see us bidding on one or more of the ships up for grabs, we'd get even more surveillance than we already do." Your implication remain that you have an alternative method of data gathering. "It's extremely limited and amazingly finicky, but yes. We think we've stumbled on the way the Sleythin got the data in the first place." * Tomas turns his attention away from his surveillance of the cookies, "Really? How's that?' * Hestia grits her teeth, as if it's taking physical effort to say it, "Do tell." <> "The problem with relativity is it means that your frames of reference are only as large as the speed of light lets them be, and causality is constrained by the same speed of light. So scanning on that range is, by definition, years out of date if not decades if not millenia. We've got a way around that, but it suffers a little from ... a quirk in how we do it. We can't be sure of anything until we get feet on th e ground." * Hestia looks at the man levelly. "It's amazing how, in all that technobabble, you didn't actually answer the question in any way, shape, or form." (This is why I will never be able to work in government.) (Hestia is so correct.) (I have to grant Cham's babble made sense.) (I can only assume he cribbed it from elsewhere.) (Like. Every sci-fi that deals with the issue ever?) (Which granted is relatively few) (It makes rough sense, but it doesn't exactly answer the question.) (It doesn't at all answer the question.) "I'm sorry, I'm being as plain as I can. We kind of take ... samples from alternate universes, little peeks, and coallate them into a guess at what things are like there. It's inaccurate and vague, hideously expensive to do, and blows the breakers in the entire site half the time." * Hestia just... stares at Corey. "...as you do." <> "This place is ATC's real R&D. We're busy working here on things that threaten to make MY hair turn white." <> * Kyle whistles. "So yes, it's massively advanced technology, and no, I don't think anyone else could do it, so the mystery of where they are obtaining THEIR information still lives." All we had to do to get ours was bribe a sleythin fangirl and pay a ridiculous sum in courier fees. How the hell hard does that sound. * Tomas looks around the room, "I don't think these guys get many groupies." Probably not. (gah, sorry, afk) "Hard to say. I don't think any of the other corporations are as resourceful as you, in that respect. But things like the Duekti planets don't make sense in that regard anyhow." * Hestia leans back in her chair. "And you're not scared of the Prophecy of Ultimate Doom?" * Hestia pauses. "What am I saying, you're cracking open alternate universes to get the financial lead on your rivals, of course you're not." Yeah, let's look at things logically here. "Yes, it's kind of my job not to be scared of that sort of thing. If I let you go into the lower levels you'd know why not, but in short I think the prophecy was blown out of proportion. Sleythin are as close as a species gets to being a psychic sinkhole." Time out. What do YOU mean, 'the sleythin prophecy'. "Superstition, really. Calling it a prophecy is overstating it. Whoever you got the data from had orders not to give it to humans, right?" (.... when did it get to be 11.) That's not what I asked. You people need a PR department. "I am the PR department. Trust me, if you saw the lower levels you'd understand." Yeah, so you've said. <>