Unknown Facility

Quote (NOTICE TO ALL PLAYERS)

While within this location, your characters will not have access to normal network communications and they will be unable to jack out. This means:

---Communications Jamming Active---

- Your Operators cannot contact other people across the network via E-Mail, BBS, or Chat. Chat windows do not function, and all other communication protocols are jammed or fire-walled. Your Operators may only directly communicate with their own Navigators or Team Type SPs. Chip Preset does not bypass this restriction.

- Your Navigators, Team Type SPs, and SPs with Chip Preset may receive chips as normal.

- Your SPs and Navigators are limited to face to face communications only with each other. If they are not within 'verbal communication distance', they cannot communicate. Common sense will tell you how far that is.

- Abilities that would normally allow you yo communicate across distances or perform scouting using remotes will fail.


---Jack Out Barrier Active---

- Your Navigators and SPs cannot jack out until you exit the location contained within this thread. EJO does not function here. Being defeated here means having to Restore your characters from Backup Data, and thus the loss of a great deal.

- Any rewards gained here will be tracked in a pool. You may not use the zenny, chips, and bugfrags gained within the pool as currency, trade material, or power up material for SP abilities until you leave the thread and jack out safely. If your characters are deleted, you will lose everything gained here on top of being penalized for your defeat. Everything includes IC memories of everything your character had done since the last time they jacked into the Net from the PET.

- With regards to FXP, if either party is defeated, all FXP gained in this thread is lost permanently along with the memories and experiences of the deleted character. As they have to be restored from backup upon defeat, they will not remember anything that happened since their last rest period in the PET, thus the loss of FXP.



You have been warned.

The lift travels to the bottom of a very very tall elevator shaft. There is a large metal blast door at the back of the lift. Sadly, it does not open automatically, and features another simple lighted control panel on the wall to the left of it. There is nothing else remarkable about this room, save the presence of snow covering everything from earlier.

The communication link with Mach, Area, and even Mazer no longer functions. Vector is on his own. What shall he do?

Vector seemed to have a little bit of trouble working the controls, but as the elevator stopped, he noticed one of the control panels lit up. He continued to spin slowly as he looked over the panel, and noticed one of the buttons was labeled "open." The lower half of his body slid down as a single sliver-like shard of his body floated towards the console, then pecked at the button before it zipped back into Vector's body as it closed back up into its Mystery Data form.

((ACTIONS:
Press Open button
Quietly observe))

The heavy metal blast door let out a metallic ker-thunk as the locks released, and the multi-layered partition opened to reveal a large hallway beyond. This hallway was built entirely of the same network data as that of metal panels, and would most likely withstand everything a Navigator could do to it. The hall was a good dozen panels wide, and perhaps four rockcubes tall. It stretched before Vector without a visible end, and for good reason... The lighting in the hallway was provided by recessed panels built into the corners of the hall where wall met ceiling and floor. The strange thing about it was that the lights seemed to work on some sort of sensory system wherein they only turned on to reveal the area immediately around Vector and other dataforms that currently occupied the spaces these lights were responsible for. This area apparently included the next dozen or so panels around a dataform's location, as beyond that the lights simply shut themselves off, and the area beyond quickly dimmed into impenetrable shadow barely 4 panels beyond the edge of the lighted area.

Vector could tell the lighting system detected only the presence of dataforms because there were several scattered about the hallway just beyond the door. They appeared to be, of all things, a trio of Navigators, and something of a variety at that... but something wasn't quite right about them. All three of them appeared to be not only defunct, but also completely drained of color to the point of their GMO forms being gray-scaled monochrome.

The Navigator closest to the door appeared to have been a robed female with a slightly phased out form as if she were a transparent hologram. The helmet-less Navi was laying face-down on the floor next to the wall with her long hair covering her face. She had a simple sword grasped in one hand. There was not a mark anywhere on her, giving the impression that she was merely sleeping in her current position. A small pouch that had been worn by her lay next to her person.

The next Navigator was not nearly as lucky. He was propped up in a sitting position across the hallway with his back to the wall. He was slumped forward a bit with his helmeted head canted forward to face the ground. The Navi wore a suit of futuristic powered armor that had signs of combat damage clearly visible in the form of grooves from claws, blades, and lord knew what else as well as scorch marks and even pits left by projectile fire. There had also appeared to have been a pair of shoulder cannons on this powered armor, however the barrel of the one Vector could see was smashed and bent, while the other was missing along with the Navi's left arm. A futuristic looking battle-rifle, loaded with a clip, lay discarded near the fallen warrior, as did the visor of his helmet.

The next Navi, laying on his back in the middle of the hall, appeared to have been a knight in full plate. Very battered full plate. The human-form armor was dented, pitted, scratched, scorched, and even cracked in places. The Navi, like his futuristic comrade, appeared to have seen more combat in his last moments than Vector had seen in his entire existence if the armor of either one of them was any indicator. And it appeared the Knight, like the soldier against the wall, had been ready to give better than he got... There was the battered remains of a kite shield strapped to the Navi's right fore-arm with what appeared to be an empty repeating crossbow bolt launcher tucked in beneath it. The long handle of a broken greatsword was grasped in the Navi's left gauntleted hand; the broad blade broken off a few inches beyond the cross guard. It hadn't been the Navi's only weapon as a discarded lance lay near one wall, and a spiked flail's head, severed from its chain, lay a few panels down the hall just before the light began to dim.

It was silent in the hallway. There was no sign of viruses or other hostiles in the immediate vicinity, but...

Vector remained completely silent as the door slid open and revealed the hallway ahead. He didn't see any movement whatsoever, so as he continued to rotate his mystery data disguise, he slowly but surely moved towards the doorway to get a closer look. However, he didn't need to move much before he plainly saw the three seemingly inactive Navis in the hallway ahead. Vector immediately attempted to send a message to Machman, but was denied by a notification that indicated a lack of signal.

{Blast, I can't reach them. I might as well see what I can find out before I head back up.}

He continued to float towards the doorway before a single sliver of armor appeared from his polygonal body. He wanted to confirm the existence of the three figures, and determine if they were truly inactive. He maneuvered the small shard towards the robe of the female figure before he tried to gently brush the shard against the robe, to see if it was truly there, and not just an illusion.


ACTIONS
-BMD.GMO active-
Determine if Robed Navi is physically there, or just an illusion

The material appears to feel somewhat solid, and quite soft, in spite of the ethereal seeming nature of the robe and the one wearing it. The robed Navi is indeed there. She does not stir at all, however.

The Navi appeared to be real, but didn't respond at all to Vector's curious actions. The blade retreated as he started to unfold from this Mystery Data shape and deactivated the .GMO. He reformed into his default humanoid shape before the metal plates making up his right arm moved into place to form a single straight blade. Vector was careful to avoid the walls and floor and floated towards the trio of fallen Navis, all the while he silently looked them over in an attempt to understand what had happened.
{What happened to these three? They were apparently defeated, but why are "they" still here? Wouldn't their programs return to the PET or fragment as the result of a deletion?}

He noticed the weapons and other items strewn about as he floated amongst the three still forms, and paused as a flurry of somber thoughts went through his mind.
{They surely fought to the end, and against what appears to be a superior force. And it looks like they fought as a team...}

If he was physically capable of having a shiver crawl up his spine, he would have felt it just about then.
{... Why do I see my master and mistress in these two? A woman and a man in battle armor, and a knight... Will this be me? Will we meet the same fate?}

Vector tried hard to shake the thought from his mind, and shifted his focus to the task at hand. Something inside him demanded these warriors shouldn't be left strewn about like random corpses, they at least deserved to rest in dignity. He leaned down towards the female Navi before he noticed a closed pouch resting nearby. He cautiously pointed his weaponized right arm towards the pouch before he tried to open the flap of the pouch with the tip of the blade in an attempt to see if there was anything inside.


ACTIONS:
Take closer look of fallen Navis
Attempt to open pouch

Vector opens the semi-transparent pouch to find that the interior of the pouch was for some strange reason not visible from the outside in spite of the thing being see-through. How that worked out was anyone's guess.... Regardless, there was a small medallion tucked inside the pouch. The medallion was roughly the same size and shape as those worn by Navis upon their ear covers and other places on their persons... yep, it even had a picture printed on it which meant Vector was looking at a a Navigator's Emblem. The Emblem's image was that of a gateway's ring around a gray dot printed on a black background. What this symbolized was anyone's guess.

There was nothing else inside the pouch. Closing it again made the interior vanish from view, however. Strange how that worked....

Vector looked at the Navi Emblem carefully before he looked at the fallen figures. Oddly enough, all three Navis didn't seem to have any emblems present. He placed the emblem back in the pouch before he tried to roll the fallen Navi onto her back. Something didn't feel right to just leave them sprawled around the room. After he tried to roll the Navi on her back, he took her arms and tried to place them in front of her, while holding the broadsword, pointed down, resting on her chest.

He then moved to the Navi who sat against the far wall, and tried to lay him down on the floor just like the female Navi. Vector then reached for the assault rifle and put it across the Navi's chest and rested his right hand back on his weapon.

Finally, he moved to the Knight. He appeared to be much too heavy to move, and decided to place the Navi's arms across its chest, one hand holding the crossbow, and the other holding the great sword, while the morning star sat next to his side.

Vector stood back up before he noticed the visor that once belonged to the rifle-wielding Navi, and picked it up carefully before he oriented the visor as if to look through it as it was designed.


ACTIONS:
Put the Emblem back in the pouch
Attempt to place the three fallen Navis in more dignified resting places
Examine the visor

The time Vector spent trying to arrange the non-functional Navis into more dignified positions was something of a learning experience for the SP.

While Vector was attempting to turn the female Navi over, her form suddenly lost all sense of tangibility. She fell through the SP's hands, and faded completely away as the Navi Emblem he'd found in her pouch hit the floor with a light metallic sound one would expect from a coin or medallion. None of the Navi's belonging remained either. Even the sword had dissipated into oblivion with its owner.

The futuristic soldier Navi was also something of a mild surprise. Vector had trouble moving the armored figure... He literally must have weighed a few tons, thanks to his suit of powered armor. It took a while, but Vector did eventually manage to arrange the fallen warrior on the floor. The battle rifle was a little heavier than expected as it appeared it was still loaded. The SP still managed to arrange the Navi as desired in the end.

The medieval knight proved to be less of a pain to move about. The armor and gear the knight had carrierd was as heavy as expected, but after trying to move the power armored warrior, this was decidedly easier. The exceptions were that Vector found the bolt launcher to be permanently attached to the backing of the shield and wound up having to unlash the shield to move it. The other came from the weight of the flail head, which appeared to have been made of cast iron, and filled with lead... and maybe mercury, as it did seem the weight tended to shift when the spiked ball was moved. It took some doing, but Vector did eventually return it to the fallen knight's side.

His tasks accomplished, Vector picked up the visor and looked into it. It appeared the processes for the visor were still running. Proof of this came when it randomly fixated on objects within its field of view, and displayed what were most likely info boxes concerning the tagged objects in question. Vector ended up having to move the visor closer to his face to confirm that that's what they indeed were. The visor seemed to track where the SP was looking in real time, as a thin focus ring somehow stayed within the very center of the SP's vision no matter where he looked while the visor was in front of his eye.

Eventually, something blinking insistently at the edge of the visor caught Vector's eye. When the SP looked over at the small blinking icon, it immediately expanded into a small window filled with symbols that were obviously text of some kind. A glance at it told him he couldn't read it, as it wasn't something the SP was programme-- While attempting to read the unrecognizable text, Vector had apparently accidentally triggered a protocol built into the visor. The visor dissolved into a blurry glowing cloud of data before his very eye, then suddenly rushed right at his face before he could react.

A few moments later, after Vector could see clearly again, he realized the visor's HUD was now installed inside his eye. A couple of lines of gibberish made of those symbols he'd seen earlier printer across the upper periphery of his field of vision. A moment later and the cursor made a second pass across those same two lines, converting them from gibberish into something he understood:

[Type-M Network Scanner Version 1.09a
Status: Online]

The semi-transparent text faded into nothingness seconds later.

Vector recoiled as the data rushed towards his face and raised his arms over his head in a instinctual attempt to protect himself, though it was technically completely ineffective. Vector's red eye became blurry and flickered a few times before it reverted to its strong glow, but this time there was a green ring set within his circular eye.

Vector started to look around, and saw that whatever it was, it didn't seem to harm him. He then noticed the strange text within his vision before it was translated for him like a computer display.

{Network Scanner? That visor must have uploaded it's programming to me somehow... This place is just getting more and more strange.}

Vector was still trying to get over the surprise of the most recent events that unfolded, including the complete disappearance of the female Navi and the visor somehow installing itself in his eye. However, he knew he couldn't just sit there and ponder it over, he was cut off from his Navi and fellow SP, and all three of them were likely in danger. He decided to see how the scanner functioned, and glanced down towards the fallen Navi with the futuristic armor and battle rifle, to see if any sort of data might appear. He then noticed the emblem that lay on the ground, and glanced towards it as well.

ACTIONS:
Attempt to Scan Armored Navi and Navi Emblem

Try as he might, Vector could not get the newly installed software to do more than acknowledge the existence of the fallen Navigator. It would highlight the Navi, but had nothing more interesting than [Navigator: Class-S Encoding, Data Damaged] to say about it. The Emblem produced something similar, with the info-box stating [Navigator: Class-O Encoding, CPA Active]. None of this really meant a whole lot to the SP of course, as there was no instruction manual. Not that there was much context to draw meaning from to begin with....

{... I don't understand any of this...}

Vector tried to "look around" in the visor's controls to see if there were any readme files, manuals, or even a glossary. Vector was pretty much flying blind and nearly pushing buttons at random. He didn't spend much time messing with the visor program that had become integrated into his eye, and looked back towards the elevator for a moment before he glanced down the darkened hallway.

Vector knew to continue could mean certain EJO or deletion, but the more he learned about this place, the more he could report back to Machman and Aera, and key information may mean the difference between allowing more Navis to meet the same fate as the trio near him, or shutting down this facility for good. Vector clenched his left hand as his right arm reconfigured itself into a sharpened, sword-like blade before he started to slowly hover down the hallway.


ACTIONS:
Attempt to figure out visor controls
Travel down hallway

Vector searched the new protocol for any signs of something helpful. Eventually, he did spot a tiny translucent icon vaguely in the shape of a winged sword that literally floated at the extreme lower left edge of his vision. The SP literally had to turn his eye to the very edge of its allowed movement range, and then strain to focus upon the icon to get the cursor ring to hover over it. Once he did, however, the icon disappeared and... in a very anticlimactic moment, absolutely nothing else happened. A bit of searching after that revealed that there were no other icons or interactive options of any kind built into the scanner protocol.

With Vector's investigation of the scanner protocol coming up dry, the SP decided to press on and venture deeper into the facility. The strange lighting arrangement followed his progress and lighted the area immediately around him only by brightening the lights in his path as he advanced while dimming the lights in his wake. A very strange feature indeed.

Vector made perhaps all of two dozen panels worth of progress down the hallway when the protocol he'd triggered earlier apparently activated at last. The holographic image of what looked very much like the female Navigator he'd found collapsed by the elevator appeared before him. Her face was visible, but there was still the notable lack of color. The Navigator began to speak...

"Greetings, curious one." Curious indeed, as Vector was indeed hearing her speak "If you are seeing this, then you are now the owner of my little toy and perhaps in a great deal of danger." Her image flickered a bit, causing the Navi to pause in her speech. It was clear this wasn't a product of poor recording, but something affecting the speaker herself. When the flickering ended, she cleared her throat and continued. "If you haven't already done so, leave the place where you found this device. It's purpose is to scan and identify a new breed of viruses written in a new coding language. These very same viruses were the downfall of most of my comrades as we tried to escape. Some of us succeeded." She paused as another round of fading and flickering assailed her image. "Most of us did not. If you, oh curious one, wish to know more, I have saved records of everything I know on the subject within this program. I only ask that you share what you have learned if you should decide to sate your curiosity." Another pause accompanied by a final round of flickering and the Navi concluded her message. "Don't suffer our fate, curious one."

The Navigator's image faded into nothing. A short time later and the visor printed a message across the top of Vector's sight: [Database access granted. To view the files, focus upon the icon in the lower left, and select from the resulting menu.] The words faded out of view after a moment.

Vector paused immediately and began to brandish his weapon as soon as he saw the image appear in front of him. However, he lowered his sword arm as he recognized the figure from the three fallen Navis he encountered. She appeared to be a hologram of some sort, and relayed a message most dire, which included a vague reason for their demise.

Vector listened closely as he looked carefully at the hologram, and from the way he saw it, the image was a video file embedded in the visor, and not a hologram projected from an external source. He did feel a slight ping of relief when he heard some of her group escaped the fate of the trio in the hallway, but it was then replaced with a more intense worry.
{Even with a stronger force, they managed to suffer such losses...}

As the Navi began to flicker and fade as she bid Vector farewell, he angled his head down slightly to the floor before he spoke in a nearly inaudible volume.
Thank you, miss. You and your comrades shall be honored for your sacrifice, and will never be forgotten.

Vector straightened his stance before he tried to focus on the icon in the lower left and access the first readable database file. As he did so, he began to slowly retreat back to where he came, and tried not to focus too much on the information displayed, since whatever attacked the Navis might return.


ACTIONS:
Access Database File
Slowly Retreat back to the fallen search party/elevator

Vector makes it back to the elevator entrance. The echoing sound of footsteps approaching, at a run no less, can be heard from somewhere ahead. Company was coming.

Vector made his way back to the elevator entrance, but paused as he heard a sound. It sounded like footsteps, and whatever it was, it was getting closer. Vector reacted by immediately activating his mystery data disguise as he dove towards the corner where he floated when he came down.

A single shard was left behind, which pressed itself against the near corner of the ceiling in an attempt to obscure it from view. He wanted to keep it on stand by to work the controls without compromising his disguise. He slowly rotated to imitate the mystery data he appeared to mimic as he looked down the hallway to see if he saw any additional lights, and possibly identify the incoming entity.


ACTIONS:
Activate BMD.GMO
Move into position
Attempt to see/identify the incoming programs

A few moments later and a female Navi dressed as a corporate secretary ran into view. She stopped a healthy distance down the hallway, and waved her hand to order someone else to proceed past her. "Investigate," was the only thing she said as a group of three dark gray humaoid forms floated quickly, and silently past her. The humanoids appeared to be power armored Navigators? No, something was off.

As the trio fanned out to inspect the two fallen Navis, the visor locked onto the nearest one. It proclaimed the humanoid form to be not a Navigator, but a virus. Something called a Reaper Virus. As the virus settled down to the ground, soundlessly except for the thud of its landing, Vector noticed there had been no jet flames. The armor, if that's what it really was, made no sounds. There were no glowing indicator lights. Nothing that would identify the powered armor as powered.

Closer inspection revealed their unarmored upper arms and legs to be much thinner than Navi average, while their armored forearms, gauntleted hands, armored lower legs, and booted feet were a bit larger than average. They appeared to wear heavy upper torso armor and shoulder covers over a lighter set of full body armor. A non-descript looking box with a couple of what appeared to be small and merely decorative fins poking upwards served as a backpack. To top the ensemble off, each of them seemed to wear a full helm that completely covered their heads, including the face. The only feature of note on the helm was a simple opaque visor inset in the face of the helm. None of them carried, bore, or wore any form of visible weaponry.

As Vector watched, the virus picked up the Emblem he had previously discarded, and walked back to the secretary. It dropped the Emblem into her hands, bringing a smile to her face. "Well done 109. You can go play now." Her grin turned predatory, something that did not fit her outward appearance at all, as the virus turned around and ran towards the lift. The secretary called after the virus as it entered the lift: "Be sure to collect the fool's Emblem before you break him, now, okay?"

The virus nodded as it slapped the control panel on the wall with its hand, and shut the doors behind itself. As it walked into the snow covered lift, the color of its outer skin changed to various shades of blue, gray, and white from the black, gray, and metallic hues it sported in the metal hallway. It punched the 'up' key, and stood there silently cracking its knuckles as the lift began to move....

It either didn't notice or just chose to ignore Vector's presence.