Halstead Dataworks: Electopian Branch

Halstead Dataworks is located in a three story office building a short walk from the nearest bus stop. The building itself is made of layers of white concrete with dark gray reflective windows, and is arranged in an L-Shape around a small visitors parking lot. Employees park beneath the building, through a security checkpoint designed to keep casual interlopers out. The sidewalks leading up to the entrance are covered walkways that provide merciful shade against the summer sun. The entrance itself is a pair of wide glass panel double doors (that's 4 doors) that seem to be designed with moving larger things into and out of them as well as people.

Just inside the entryway is a lobby with comfortable chairs and benches arranged around the room and a small lighted fountain in the center that runs water down the Halstead Dataworks corporate logo. The benches and chairs are both cushioned, and the occasional small table with a news feeder can be seen here and there. The news feeders are not working, however, as the words [No Network Connection] blink on the display.

Near the back of the room are two reception desks. The larger of the two is situated along the left wall, and appears to have queues roped off before it. The sign above proclaims it to be the 'business center'. There is a young man and three young ladies standing behind it in formal office attire, and all of them appear busy with their computer terminals.

The other reception desk is situated against the back wall next to a wide metal double door with a security key reader next to that. The large, unsmiling Netopian man seated behind this desk is wearing a security guard uniform. Unlike the receptionists, he is fully alert when someone walks through the front door.


[spoiler=Special Gameplay Notes]Remember: If you want either an RP response from an NPC or an out of battle action resolved immediately, add ((Interject)) at the bottom of your post to let the other players and myself know. I will then post a response to it as soon as possible. This applies only outside of combat.

Dialogue Posting: Shorter posts with back and forth conversation between two or more players/NPCs are allowed. However, be courteous and try to avoid shutting out the other players with long uninterrupted bouts of speed-posted dialogue.

--General Posting Order--
Not established yet.[/Spoiler]

Thomas entered into the lobby with a blinking, almost bewildered expression, and hmphed to himself every once in a while as he looked around, impressed. Each 'hmph' was accompanied by a short, curt nod of recognition, and the entire process continued for a good ten minutes until Thomas finally walked up to the Reception desk. "Uh... Thomas Brighton, I'm here about the... mission?" He said, stopping himself just barely from saying the word 'problem'. Even with the lobby seemingly empty, he doubted they wanted him to advertise it...

Beside him a small viewscreen opened, and Regalia's grim, serious expression also answered from beneath his helm. "Regalia.exe, reporting in along with Thomas Brighton for the job your company sent in the request for."[color=5A6351][/color] The elder knight paused, his eyes glinting underneath the plastic of the visor. "I've noticed even your network in the front office here seems to be disconnected-- has the situation worsened past the containment of your server farms to the company's network at large?"[color=5A6351][/color]

"Sssh, Regalia!" Thomas quickly smacked the mute button, and a large, red "MUTE" appeared in the top-left of the screen. "They probably don't want people to know about that!"

Regalia said something in reply to that, shaking his head in disdain as he spoke, but nobody was quite able to hear it.

Stepping off the bus, Vincent arrived at the beachfront area and started to glance about for the building he was supposed to be looking for. Flipping open his P.E.T. and calling up the holoscreen as he starts heading towards the building, his metal briefcase in hand. "According to the information, they believe to be having issues with some internal affairs. While normally I might avoid such situations, an entrepreneuring company having troubles may be something we'll be dealing with ourselves one day."

Lucia, who at the moment was laying out in the bubbling lava bath back on the safety of her homepage eased forward and rested head atop cross arms on the edge of the stone tub. "So what do you think is going on? Why would they call outside help, I mean, don't companies have security teams for this sort of thing. Master's daddy's does."

Giving a faint smirk, Vincent could only shrug as he steps up to the doorway. "I suppose we'll find out shortly." flipping the device closed he'd step inside, taking a brief moment to glance about the entryway and giving a faint nod to what he could only assume was security by the way the man watched the front door. Turning his attention away he'd start moving past the fountain and up to the reception desk, even offering a light nod to the fellow already there as he took a spot near a second receptionist. "Good afternoon miss, my name is Vincent Strife, I'm here to see miss Lydia Halstead."

After dropping his niece and nephew off at the house and fixing them something insubstantial and junky to eat, Burt made haste to reach Beach Street as soon as possible and reach the Halstead address. Lo and behold, however, his excitement was ill-placed: the office building was about as far from a nice spot to scope out voluptuous beach bunnies and girl teenagers in swimsuits, both of which Burt had an interest in, as one could get. Furthermore, once he reached the lobby, he quickly spotted the two guys he was going to be working with. "Dudes! All dudes," he thought to himself, shaking his head in disappointment. Sometimes, going from the excitement of operating his navi and SPs to moving around the real world was like going to work... and sometimes, it actually involved his work as a teacher, although not as often as it ought to.

On the note of his navi and SPs, Burt decided to brighten up the situation by speaking with Exorcist. "What do you say, Exxy? Does this smell like a job for a Counterinfectualist or what? Only problem is, with this kind of setting, we're either going to end up in a warehouse, industrial park, office complex... something like that. Or worse, another farm!" the operator groaned, ignoring everyone around the office as he stood in the center and chatted.

"For what it's worth, the e-mail did mention a farm," Exorcist spoke quietly, avoiding raising her voice due to the office setting.

"God, I hope not. I'm going to have to get you and Mary some shirtless overalls so I can have sideboob to entertain me if-" he started, then realized midway through that he'd be breaking his own tenants of Counterinfectualism if he didn't hurry up and discover the root of the problem. Ignoring the tact that the others had shown, he walked up and found the youngest of the females, just assuming they were all secretaries. Ignoring her busy status, he began making inquiries. "So, I'm here to stop all of those crazy disappearances you guys have in your unsecurable data area or whatever! My name's Burt J. Blanchard; I'm a part time teacher, part time prophet. My navi is Exorcist.EXE," he introduced himself. "So which way do I go to jack into your doohickie and get to work, huh?"

As Burt continues to exist, Regalia begins to make increasingly irritated gestures and motions at him from his spot inside the holo-window, all the while speaking at a faster and faster pace. Ohhhh boy. Thomas cradles his face in his palm, takes a deep breath, and then turns to Burt.

"Excuse me, sir! You're not here about the mission request, are you?" Thomas asks, a little hopeful that he still might not be.

Camillia, with the help of convenient ramps and a few other bus passengers, managed to reach Beach Street's bus stop in one piece. Her PET laid on her lap, and with Rhea acting as her navigator (no pun intended), she rolled her way through the 5-foot-way and found herself in front of the imposing building. It had been almost forever since she entered one of these; but it was not entirely a bad recollection.

The glass panel doors whizzed open quietly to welcome her, her eyes squinting slightly to adjust to the lighting differences inside. Cool, air-conditioned environment greeted her as she rolled into the lobby, looking around for the reception.

"Eleven o'clock, about 30 feet beyond the water feature," Rhea said, mimicking the archaic vocal design of sat navis. Camillia nodded to the instructions, trying very hard not to make her wheelchair slip on the smooth, marble floorings. Her eyes remain fixated on the fountain even as she moved, however; for the trouble it was in, it was probably a successful company with an impressive track record. Not that she knew anything about it, of course.

As her attention was not on the path before her, she didn't realise that she had reached the reception desk, and found the wheelchair bumping softly at the counter. "Oops," she muttered, sitting straight as she... found to her dismay, she couldn't see beyond the counter. But then the receptionists were standing, so all was well as she meekly looked up to greet one of them that wasn't busy with other people that were already there.

Odd; for an empty lounge, it sure had quite a crowd assembling at the reception.

"Excuse me. I've received an invitation for a mission contract from your VP, Miss Lydia Halstead," she greeted, pulling up her ID card to place it over the counter (which was thankfully within her reach still). "I'm Camillia Ranbard, and my Navigator is Rhea.EXE. May I inquire on where do I wait for her?"

Not seeming to mind much on the wait, Vincent seemed fine with doing so while others started to step up to the counter all requesting or mentioning the same type of objective. Still when he heard introductions from Burt about his navi, he at least smiled slightly as he offered his hand. "Burt you say? I'm Vincent, the operator of Lucia.EXE. I believe our navi's have recently met in the Netfrica network. Nice to meet the man behind the navi."

Still as far as interruptions went, another asked for Burt's attention so he was going to let that slide, particularly when a young woman wheeled her way up to the counter. Stepping aside slightly to allow her fair space as well. While trying to place her face, as he was certain he'd seen her before. Though a faint smirk arouse when she mentioned the same person he and the other's seemed to be here for.
"Interesting, am I safe in assuming each of you received an e-mail about this company and helping with an internal affairs issue of security?"

Though slightly alarmed at the fact that the tall man made it known that he knew vaguely of Camillia's own purpose of being here, the wheelchair-bound Operator managed to maintain her composure. After all, there should be other participants from the way the GNA offered the job, she reasoned mentally, nodding politely to the other in acknowledgement of his statement.

Of course, with that as precedence, that meant that the other two were here for the mission, as well. Wait, was she the only female?

"Warning! Humanoid objects with potential movement spotted within your vicinity," Rhea blared with her monotonous voice via the PET on Camillia's lap, to which Camillia managed to hide her embarrassment with a tiny, strained smile. "These are real people, Rhea," Camillia said simply, a finger scratching at her own cheek.

"Oh," Rhea responded.

"I actually am! The name's Burt J. Blanchard, blah blah blah, you just heard all of it while I was talking to this lady," Burt greeted Thomas with his usual vacant smile. Having nothing else to say about himself and no curiosity to learn more about Regalia's operator, he turned to speak with Vincent. "Small world, isn't it! Or maybe there's a spot for fate and divine plans even in Counterinfectualism? Anyways, it's good to meet you! I'm a fan of your navi's design, you know! What I wouldn't do to be that big, static electricity dog for a while!"

"Are you saying you want to be hugged by Bhikkhuni too, Master?" Mary chuckled from Exorcist's PET.

Ignoring the comment, Burt turned to look at the little girl putting in a similar, although far more politely stated, request to his own. "C-C-Cute! Look at her little wheelchair!" he thought to himself, holding his fists to his jaw in delight. "What a precious little operator! I wonder what her navi's like? Maybe she's also a cutie!" Anticipation built as Burt's eyes scanned over Camilla behind his oval-rimmed glasses.

"... Burt, I don't think it's okay to look at her the same way you look at me or Mary," Exorcist interjected, feeling both unnerved and slightly irritated that Burt was letting his seldom reciprocated love for children get out of hand.

"Oh, I'm not," he lied, tugging at his scarf with his sweaty palms. Back when he'd first decided to become a teacher, he'd already known he had a problem around kids. He was a socially responsible person back then, however, so he'd distanced himself from them and gone into teaching college, convincing himself that after all, everyone had their vices, and he'd just have to avoid acting on them. Ever since Counterinfectualism, however, society's principles had gone out the window. If it wasn't directly interfering with the creation of his utopia, it was fair game.

Not just any little girl would do; only the "moe-est" girls would get Burt excited. Still, there was something about her sitting down in her wheelchair, taking a GNA mission but struggling to get the attention of the desk clerks, that set him off. It wasn't like he was straight on getting a woody or anything, but he desperately wanted the little girl to smile at him. Biting his lip and nearly choking himself with his scarf, he stared down at her and tried to think how he was going to avoid alienating himself.

Exorcist had seen Burt restrain himself around his niece, who she happened to know was just his type. That meant there must be some shred of humanity within Burt that allowed him to tell right from wrong, but clearly, it wasn't winning out in this case. "Calm down!" she encouraged him in a soothing whisper. "If you want a girl to like you, you should try to be friendly with her, not tense!"

"Yeah, creeper! Don't act like you're going to cream your pants just cause you started talking to a little girl," Bhikkhuni advised, less interested in Burt's well-being and more in stopping him from being a pervert.

"If he keeps at it too much longer, he can earn her pity at least by choking himself with that scarf," Exorcist sighed. "Please don't injure your body more than your lifestyle and eating habits already are, Burt..."

"Ah- yes, I received an e-mail! It seems everyone else here did too..." Thomas said... and then Regalia managed to unmute himself.

"As I was saying-- all of you there! Behind the desk! How long are we going to be kept waiting?"[color=5A6351][/color] The irritated knight snapped at them, his aged voice booming and heavy with command. His jaw twitched slightly as he glared on from the holoscreen... not that anyone could see the latter. "I am... eager to start our task."[color=5A6351][/color]

What he didn't add was the way his allies were already grating on his nerves.

[Interject]

The young man behind the desk raised his head and listened to each person as they came up to the desk. He shook his head each time before responding. "I'm sorry, but you will have to wait here until Miss Halstead returns to the lobby. Our network is down, and we have no way to contact her in this building. None of our keys work, either." He would then glance sideways at the security door, sigh, and return to work. His tone of voice changed to a deeper shade of disinterest each time he repeated his speech.

The door next to the security station opened, and an older Netopian gentleman held the door open while a young Whazzapian (hispanic) woman in a black-cherry business dress stepped into the lobby. She whispered thanks to the gentleman along with a request that he continue to hold the door open for her for a bit before turning and surveying the lobby. She caught sight of the group by the counter, and made her way towards it with a purposeful stride. When she was close enough to address the group without raising her voice, she began speaking to the receptionists: "Did they just arrive?"

"Yes ma'am," the young man responded, happy to not have to repeat himself for once. He then pointed to each person as he identified them; "They are Thomas Brighton, Vincent Strife, Burt Blanchard, and Camillia Ranbard; all here to see you."

"Outstanding," the young woman replied before coming to a stop next to the group. When she addressed the group, her tone was all business, and a little hurried. "Hello, I'm Lydia Halstead, and I thank you all for coming here on such short notice. Now, if you would please follow me to one of our control rooms, time is of the essence. Feel free to ask me any questions about the job on the way there." With that, she turned and began walking back towards the security door the older gentleman was holding open for her.

As Thomas began to follow along behind the woman who was apparently their client, Regalia kept his mind sharp by beginning with a barrage of questions.

"First off, I'd like to review the facts. When exactly did this start? In the morning? The afternoon?"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia asked her, then continued asking. If she could handle all of his questions at once, it would be better for the rest of the group, after all. "You mentioned that the datamine's server environment had been altered in your e-mail. How exactly was it changed?"[color=5A6351][/color]

Pausing briefly-- if only so that she could think-- Regalia continued to question the woman. "Furthermore, you said your intranet link tables were 'changed'. Were the addresses changed to something else? Garbled? What?"[color=5A6351][/color]

His expressionless face only continued to stare straight ahead at the woman's back as they walked, and then he asked his final few questions. "Lastly, have you confirmed how strong the viruses infecting the datamine are? Even if you haven't, do you have any footage of the network environment inside the datamine? Even if you haven't sent any navigators in, you should have footage from before the missing ones disconnected. I, and I'm sure my colleagues as well, would be very interested in seeing this footage, as it would increase not only our chances of survival, but of being able to finish the task you're asking of us. And if you don't have any footage..."[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia's eyes lit up behind the visor, and his last question landed. "Why was this mission listed as S-rank liability? Exactly how strong were the navigators that disappeared?"[color=5A6351][/color]

Having at least gotten some of the introductions out of the way, Vincent was happy to finally see the client step in and get things started. Taking up his briefcase and pausing long enough for things to begin and her to start leading the way. Taking a glance back to make sure the young lady in her wheelchair could manage to keep pace.

Any questions he had were put to silence though by the sudden barrage of them asked by Thomas. Making him smirk and take a moment to flick his ponytail as he moved closer towards their client to try and get his own question in. "Perhaps instead of asking why it was listed as such, I think it may be better to ask just what exactly you're expecting of us. Clearing the problem out will probably be simple enough, but I'd assume you're hoping we would track down the source so it could be dealt with."

Burt was interested at the arrival of another young girl who, if perhaps not oriented towards his tastes so much as Camillia, did hold a lot of intrigue thanks to her suit and nationality. "A unique character! We'll see how this develops," he mused to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

The old, impatient navi, operated by the one named Thomas, rattled on with question after question while the slick young guy of the group, Vincent, tried to play straight man. That was all fine by Burt; he wasn't really curious at all. If it wasn't something he could drool over or otherwise identify as a source of evil that had to be removed, he wasn't terribly interested. Although, perhaps it wouldn't hurt to keep an ear out... After all, evil lurked in unlikely places and he couldn't have any of these people dismissing a true threat to the sanctity of the world.

In the mean time, Burt fell back to keep Camillia company. "So, what got you interested in a job like this? It's going to be pretty dangerous for your navi, you know! I'm only applying because my navis are blessed, chosen disciples of the world's one true religion," he inquired, smiling in as not-eerie a way as he could manage, which was still fairly eerie. "Well, I say navis, but two of them decided to become SPs."

Camillia's eyebrows raised slightly at Burt's uncomfortable gaze, blinking once when her PET flashed a few alerting lights to gain her attention. Lowering her own gaze to the PET screen, Rhea was apparently trying to give some sort of a warning. "Warning! Warning! Potential threat detected from dodgy eye contact!" the Navigator blared through the PET's speakers, seemingly directed more at Burt than her own Operator.

Much like another person within the vicinity, Camillia pressed the 'mute' button and Rhea stopped talking entirely in obedience.

"Sorry about that," Camillia said while smiling apologetically at Burt. She wasn't in the mood of embarrassing herself further amongst these people, especially not when they will be her future partners in the upcoming mission. That being said, however, she remained oblivious to the subject matter of Rhea's warnings and wasn't tall enough to notice Burt attempting to choke himself with his scarf.

Gracefully bowing to the receptionists from her waist up, Camillia wheeled around to follow the lady in her business outfit. She managed to catch that the other man was checking on her whether she could catch up; and she returned Vincent's gaze with an appreciative smile.

All this while, she let the others ask the question; it was relatively new an experience for herself to take on a mission, so she didn't know what to expect. "Well," she started, wheeling her way as she traced the route taken by the others, "I've only recently started taking missions. Just thought I could do something to give back to the community," she finished vaguely. In truth, she didn't know what; she just felt like she needed something to do, and something that needed her to move out of the cozy apartment.

A search for some meaning to her life, perhaps? Not that she could actually be useful to anyone, really.

While Camillia responded to Burt, Rhea forced herself to appear by standing on top of the wheelchair's backrest in the form of a tiny hologram. The Navigator seemed to be giving the best glare her face could manage at Burt.

At the mention of religion, Camillia carefully dodged the cue and approached to Burt's statement with another perspective. "Sounds like you have a pretty experienced Navi and SP team," she noted; it probably was no easy task to obtain two SPs for Navigators.

Lydia responded to the barrage of questions without skipping a beat: "This problem started 3 days ago at two in the morning, Electopian Standard Time." She smirked to herself, since her back was turned and they couldn't see it. When she answered the next question, she sounded slightly amused by the Navi-Lordling-turned-sleuth. "The network environment? I could answer you, but I will refer you to Minah. She knows better than I, and you will meet shortly." She maintained her smile. "The viruses, if you can call them that, are corrupted versions of your own proprietary database administration programs. They were not developed for combat, but have proven capable to delete even Navigators in their current state." She sighed at the cluster of follow on questions, and gave a simplified reply to the majority of them. "I will again refer you to Minah for network environment status. We have also lost all logs-- footage to you, I suppose-- of the event. They have been deleted by the corrupted programs that recorded them in the first place."

Lydia came to a stop at the door at the end of the hall, knocked upon it, and turned to face the group. Her expression was rather serious. "To answer the both of you, my understanding is that we are dealing with a rampaging Cybeast. I was informed of this scarcely 30 minutes ago by our NOC Administrator--" A sleep deprived young man opened the door from the inside to let them in. "This man here, rather..." She indicated the man who had opened the door. "Hello, Jeff."

"Miss Halstead." Jeff replied in a formal manner, but in a tone that suggested he was mentally preoccupied. Or perhaps just plain tired. The cup of coffee in the administrator's free hand, which could probably be a substitute for industrial solvent in a pinch, was probably the only reason he was still awake. He motioned vaguely for everyone to enter the room, and Lydia did just that.

Beyond the door was a NOC (Network Operations Center) that was essentially inside a glass box. Outside the box, there were more than a hundred server cabinets lined up in an orderly grid in what was essentially a giant 'clean room' where every panel of the floor and ceiling was a giant air exchange system that cycled the air into and out of the room once every minute. This served to keep dust out of the servers, and keep the server farm at a cool 15.5 C, or so the thermostat indicated. A very expensive setup indeed, and probably very noisy, too, if the rack of ear muffs next to each of the doors was any indicator. Further, most of the racks were empty, so it was a good bet there were quite a few people out among the server cabinets beyond the pressure glass doors.

Inside the box, there were dozens of multi-panel terminals in the room, and groups of techs and administrators were huddled around many of them; all working on the problem at hand. Despite the clean room just the other side of the glass, it was quiet in the room save for the muted hum of the terminals and the hushed conversing of the IT people at work. Judging by the number of people in the room, all shifts were present at the same time. Jeff rejoined a group of them of to one side.

Still, not all terminals were occupied, and Lydia led the group to a small cluster of said unmanned terminals as she continued to speak. "I'm sure the G.N.A. added that little warning based on the data we sent them about how much damage our server farm was taking from the Cybeast. And that brings us back to the problem." She looked around the room at the groups of IT workers. "As you can see, we have everyone in the Electopian branch working on repairing the damage, but we need someone to actually find and deal with the Cybeast itself. That will be your job." She waved her hands to indicate the unmanned terminals. "Take a seat at any of these workstations, and jack in whenever you are ready." She pulled one of the chairs away from a workstation so Camillia could simply roll up to it, and took a seat in the office chair off to one side.

"Well, that... wasn't what I had expected." Thomas' face had lost all its' color at the mention of the word 'Cybeast', and throughout the entire rest of the exchange he had remained almost eerily silent, given his personality. "Regalia, what do you think?"

"I think..."[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia began, the screen swiveling and turning to face Thomas, "...that either she has forgotten to introduce this 'Minah' to us, or she is a Navi."[color=5A6351][/color]

Thomas balked at that. "So wait, did you mute that entire bit about it being a Cybeast that she's sending us after or something!? Because that's kind of a big deal!" Thomas exasperated voice rang out alongside the sound of his arms cutting the air as he flailed them, and the startled young man stared down his navi.

"I heard. My reaction can be summed with three points: The first is that while I have always planned to fight a Cybeast, I had never planned it to be so soon, nor with this much aid."[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia gestured to the rest of the gathered operators at that, smirking. "The second point is that we do not know which family of Cybeast it is. Riccio? Kuman? Squalo? Drauchen? She did not say, and that worries me. And the third point..."[color=5A6351][/color]

"The third point is that my navi is nuts, and he's actually thought about fighting a Cybeast ALONE before." Thomas interrupted him, rolling his eyes. "Those things are more deadly than you give them credit for!"

"Thomas..."[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia began.

"And what if it's the wood one? That thing would tear you to pieces, you know what wood damage does to elec elementals!" Thomas' ranting continued, a little bit of fear creeping into his voice.

"Thomas...!"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia tried again, more insistently.

"And besides, what if we can't handle this thing anyway? I figured there might be some weird crap going on in their server, but a Cybeast? Don't those things just get STRONGER with more opponents!? I mean, Bur- uh, mister... Branchard? Blancheld?" Thomas paused, fiddling with his hands, and then pointed at Burt. "THAT guy has two SPs! Won't the Cybeast just get stupidly powerful if you all go in after it?"

"Thomas!"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia finally blurted, louder than Thomas' own voice and with an edge that could cut steel. "It appears I will have to append a fourth point, as my third is now this: You are going to demoralize our allies with that kind of speech!"[color=5A6351][/color]

The snap of Regalia's sharp tongue made Thomas pause for a moment-- just a moment-- and so Regalia continued. "In order for us all to have a proper fighting chance from both a personal and strategic standpoint, we need to be able to fight at our utmost. We cannot do that it you have caused us to be depressed and afraid!"[color=5A6351][/color] Regalia scoffed. "So you are going to shut up, you are going to screw your stubborn, spoiled, forceful little head back on straight enough that you would spit in that Cybeast's eye like you normally would, and, point number four, you are going to jack. Me. In!"[color=5A6351][/color]

Thomas' worried, slightly fearful expression hardened as Regalia lectured him, and by the time the little knight-commander was done, Thomas was already halfway to his seat, more determined than he had been even when they began. "Fine!" Thomas scoffed jokingly, a grin back on his face. "I guess that's what backups are for anyway, right?"

In reality his hand still shook, still wavered a little bit as he sat down, thumbing the Jack In button on his PET-- but Thomas suppressed that worry, only allowing that cocky grin to show on his face as he turned to everyone else. "Come on, guys. Let's get to work!' He called to them, beckoning them on with a hand.

Listening in calmly as the situation was explained in more detail, particularly that it seemed the programs were being corrupted. Though as the reasoning behind he made him blink and quirk a brown in surprise.

Though naturally his navi was far more expressive as she hopped up out of the lava pool she'd been relaxing in, "Cybeast?! Like, like the big monsters with tons of power? Master, isn't that the thing you're trying to find so we can tak-" Suddenly navi was cut off as mute button was pressed by Vincent so he could hear the rest of what was being said.

Offering a light nod to the obviously exhausted looking Administrator, stepping into the room he glances around before starting to move up to the terminal. "Sounds like the job will be quite serious then. If you have the attention from a Cybeast. Still that is what you hired us all for." Setting his brief case down beside him, Vincent pulled a small wireless earpiece from his pocket to link with his PET. Murmuring something softly as he sends Lucia into the network.

"Giving back to the community? Not a bad idea! Second only to Counterinfectualism, of course. Once Counterinfectualism works out, there won't be any need for difficult jobs like volunteer service any more," Burt laughed, waving his hand playfully as though Camillia had responded in a particularly quaint way. Before he could go on any further, he spotted Rhea and clasped both hands over his mouth. "Moe robo girls?! The net has come so far!" he thought to himself, wondering why it had taken him so long to figure out that if he just hung out in places that were reasonable for not only him but also little girls to be, he would encounter cute little girls.

"But yes," he smirked, adjusting his glasses and placing one hand at his hip in a confident expression, sweeping under the rug the look of shock he'd given moments ago as though it had never happened. "My navigator is incredibly experienced in the art of Counterinfectualism. My SPs... Well, one of them is experienced in something alright," the operator laughed. "The other might have some experience playing trees in school plays, I don't know."

Camillia was spared from any further Burt exploits as her new acquaintance found his attention grabbed by his favorite non-perverse buzzwords: corrupted, virus, and cybeast, in no particular order. "The time has finally come to face the nemesis of all that is good in the world! Aren't you excited, Exxy?! This time, you'll really be making a difference!" he gushed.

"I hope that means you'll behave seriously as well," Exorcist murmured, matching Rhea's own glare towards her operator with a similar offering.

"Hm hm... It's such a dire situation that I feel as though a bit of a humor might be necessary just to avoid despair," Mary mused. "Perhaps I'm misinterpreting, but even a company of this size can't feel as though they're smoothly sailing when a cybeast roams their servers."

"Indeed! It's our job to smooth it over for them," Burt responded. "And how are we going to do that if we don't keep smiles on our faces? Come on, Bhikkhuni! Smile!" he encouraged his SP. She, wanting nothing to do with either the job or him, continued frowning. "On second thought, there's no way she could be an actor. No talent for expression!"

"Do you think we're ready for a cybeast, Burt?" Exorcist asked, tilting one eyebrow skeptically. His shrug didn't return the kind of confidence she was hoping for. "What does that mean...?"

"It means I'm pretty sure you are!" he remarked noncommittally, staring with a look of bewilderment as Thomas was chewed out by his navi. Such a concept didn't really register with him, so he tilted his head and frowned. "It's nice having the perfect navi," he sighed, before jacking in his navi and group to follow after the others.

Camillia just smiled at Burt's statement, not exactly knowing what direction the man was trying to carry the conversation into. She heard the term "counter infectualism" being coined time and again, as if he was begging for her to ask him what it was.

She gracefully turned her attention to Miss Lydia's briefing, instead.

Unlike majority of the other operators, however, Camillia knew not of the implications behind Cybeasts, or any of it's horror stories. As she wheeled her way into the room, she greeted the tired, caffeine-loaded administrator with a nod before finding her way at the edge of the room, looking out into the vast server farm stretched out before her eyes. Making sure that their objective was to just remove some menace haunting the servers, Camillia came to a semi-informed conclusion that it was just a virus busting mission.

Camillia flapped open her blanket, unfolding just enough for her to cover it over her body and rolled over to the designated workstation. Rhea jumped into the terminal soon after, signalling her jack in.

-----------

As the Navis were busy with the briefing and introduction in the Net, Camillia turned her attention to the overwhelming size of the server farms. If anything, she wasn't a techie-- but it was still an amazing sight, despite not knowing fully what the farm's capabilities are. Camillia notioned for Miss Lydia's attention, giving a sincere smile as she did so.

"Will you be staying with us throughout our hunt for this... Cybeast, ma'am?" the redhead inquired, her eyes showing earnest curiosity. Though not skilled in all the tech-related thingamajings, she did know that usually Vice Presidents don't remain on-site of troubleshooting activities for too long. Usually, they want to know results, not the process.

There were a few other things troubling Camillia as well, though she didn't know where to begin to ask politely. She supposed she should take things nice and slow for now. "Are any of the other server farms for your other branches affected as well, or is it just this one?" she added.