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Eresh had taken half a dozen steps from the group when the vision swam in front of his eyes, and though it was unseen by the others his arms went slack. In a way, the events playing out before him were eerily similar to a number of incidents in his own past, and more recently the situation he had endured with his friend on that gods-forsaken rock. But just as quickly as they started, the vision faded. A moment later Eresh was aware that his armor had locked up around him as a safety precaution, and across his display the phrase ++Neurosychronization Interruption Detected. Cause: Unknown Interruption. Re-initializing Armor Neurosync. ++
He then stretched out his limbs, looking back at the others. “Did any of you see that?”
He then saw the gas mask donning woman seemed to be trailing behind, and he called back to her “Are you alright? Did you have a strange reaction too?”
Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 3, 2023 21:11:00 GMT
Tycho's head rang for a number of moments in the aftermath of the broadcast. There was a moment or two where he thought the noises he was hearing were coming from up ahead, prompting him to whip around and cast a glance past Eresh down the corridor... only to find nothing. Suddenly the Vlaka was all the more alert, glancing back to see if the others were alright, only to bump his back into the suddenly still Avian. Distracted in equal parts by processing the broadcast and trying to keep his mind off what he was stepping through, his attention nonetheless focused on Lemon. Seems like whatever that was hit her the hardest.
Normally, he'd fear some kind of hallucinogenic compound in the atmosphere here... there were plenty of scents he couldn't recognize here, such as it was. It affected all of them at the same time though, by the looks of things, even the ones wearing respirators... so he was at a loss.
"You all got that too, huh..."
He looked down at the pistol in his hands for a moment or two and let out a breath for a moment, before gripping it a little tighter. He was more used to being in the dark than he wanted to be, physically and metaphorically alike, and it was just about the only thing keeping his head level. Tycho's gaze shifted back forward, one last concerned look cast towards the faces he could see.
"Might be linked to whatever's going on here." He posed, tone about as unsure as he could convey. "Freaky shit... if those were my memories, I'd recognize them. Should keep a close eye on each other, make sure nobody gets stunned or separated. We're gonna be fine..."
Queen turned back to see one of the mercenaries was lagging behind. She didn't get her name, but it seemed like she was experiencing some kind of psychological trauma. The former student council president let the others go ahead and fell back, walking up to the woman and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Excuse me, are you alright? You seem distressed."
Lemon internally cursed at herself for the slip-up, the others had clearly also heard that not-so-fond remembrance. Her eyes'd flick over to the human lass as her shoulder was touched, a dead stare.
"This place is cursed, too many ghosts, lets get in, get whatever data is necessary, an' get tha hell out. I say we also shoot first an' ask questions later."
With that she'd lurch forward and smack the bird-man's rump a couple times with her elbow.
"Ahm not fine, I hate this place, lets get moving. If any of y'all're familiar with dealin with brainfuckery, use what methods ya got ta shield yerself. Damn why're y'all so tall."
Eresh would stumble forward a half step as Tycho bumped into him a moment later, though he didn't hold it against the canine alien. "So it was all of us after all. Well then, that isn't disconcerting." The Chozo would frown behind his helmet at this revelation, especially with Lemon's assertion that the facility was cursed. Before he was able to respond to her, he gave a bemused head tilt as she hit his backside with her elbow.. but he began walking forward again, resuming his act as the group's pointman.
"No arguments there, Jenkins." he then paused before adding: "I have the opposite problem.. all of you are hard to keep track of because you're so small. Well.. the furry one excluded." he said, hoping to add a little levity to the situation. "Well.. keep watching my back, please."
And with that, Eresh continued down the corridor, his weapon trained ahead of him as he walked.
Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 3, 2023 22:26:27 GMT
"... Assume you're among the un-initiated." Tycho replied to Lemon as they got moving again, winking at the Avian for his comment before looking to Queen, quietly hoping he wasn't alone on this one. "You mind telling me what you mean by "brain-fuckery," gato? Think we should all be on the same page, here."
At least there was an explanation, whether or not the Exotic would give it. It only did so much to ease the Vlaka's nerves, but it was hard to hate an unknown variable you weren't previously aware of. "Too many ghosts," though? Looking at the state of this place, there were only so many things that could mean.
"Are you... fuck, what're they called... a medium? Like, ESPer shit? I didn't even think that stuff was real..."
"A Medium? If that's true, I wonder why we all saw that vision too..Those with psychic gifts are relatively rare from what I understand. Either way, stay close to each other, and keep in audio contact. Whatever happened to these people, I intend to ensure that it doesn't happen to us." Eresh said as he scanned the hall as they continued forward, keeping an eye out for doors.
"And don't worry Queen, stick close to us and you'll be alright."
The air was quiet save for sounds made by the group of hunters as they approached what would nominally have been the security checkpoint. Already it was quite evident that this was not a facility that welcomed visitors, despite the automated announcement when they had entered. Ceiling mounted turrets hung in disabled position, no response at all to the intruders as they continued down the main corridor. They would come across several abandoned checkpoints, no sign of any of the staff, but in each were darkened stains like those at the main entry point.
At the third security gate, however, something was different. A single station was lit, displays glowing as they revealed several locations being watched by closed circuit cameras. The keyboard was analog, not a projected interactive hologram as was typical, meaning it was less power intensive to operate, and was still in fact operational.
All it waited for was someone to take control of it and access the mainframe.
As the group passed these disturbing scenes of carnage and desolation, Eresh couldn’t help but notice that the automated weapons seemed oddly inoperative. On one hand, that was lucky for the group… but on the other.. well it seemed oddly suspicious. They didn’t look as if they had been overly damaged from what he could tell. Did someone disable the defenses after the carnage took place? Or worse.. did something- or someone- shut down these weapon systems while the crisis was happening? Many questions, no answers.
Once they came across the third checkpoint, the Chozo spoke up as he held up a hand. “There is an active terminal, it could be worth looking at. Are any of you particularly good with computer systems? If not.. we’ll I could poke around at it.”
Queen stepped up to the keyboard, looking up at the screen for some sort of clue. "This terminal might help us somehow. I don't see any instructions or passwords anywhere. Does anyone know if it's safe to access this?"
She appreciated the avian warrior expressing his concern for her, which she was sure to heed as best she could. This wasn't the Metaverse, but she could feel Johanna's calming voice inside her heart, spurning her on and keeping her from fleeing the facility in sheer terror.
"I can serve as a support unit if needed, but let's try not to rush headlong into danger, shall we?"
Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 4, 2023 4:22:12 GMT
"You should be fine. Checkpoint terminals rarely have surface logins; inconvenient for detail changes."
Tycho only gave the terminal a quick glance, trying not to look directly at it, keen to keep his vision adjusted to the dark as much he could. A surveillance feed? Some of the security systems must still be working, even if the turrets (thankfully) weren't. Despite keeping his vision cast down the hall from which they came, he stepped closer to the security booth in order to at least glance at what Queen could find, continuing to speak in her direction.
"I used to work in corpo-sec, but I'm only familiar with Frontier tech. Lot of the procedures are probably still the same, though... thing'll probably have at least moderate access to the security systems, personnel roster, logs, maybe a way to ping the mainframe... anything else, don't know. Every corp does things a little differently, and I'm not too used to the ones this far spinward..."
"Mediums are quacks, trust me I tried hiring one a while back. They're full o' shit. Anyway, I had spent some time camera surfin back when I served sec... Lemme take a peak, corps tend ta have similar thinkin."
Lemon had been quiet as the troop trudged through the hallways, being careful to avoid repeating her initial mistake. There wasn't a whole lot to be said, she had simply kept her weapons ready and strained her own senses to the limit. There were still things that could move unseen even when directly stared at, so she also paid close attention to her ears and the low droning static of surrounding thought. She approached the console, ready to try scanning through it's contents.
"I'm no hacker, at least not the code kind, I'm good at snipping wires if I've got the tools on hand. One o' y'all're gonna have ta have at it if there's firewalls or password protection shite."
Eresh would look about amongst the other three before shrugging as he took a position further down the hall, keeping Watch. “I’d say let Queen give it a shot, and if there is some sort of security we can take turns trying to crack it.” He said helpfully, eyes now trained forward, occasionally looking at spots that he felt could hide a potential threat to himself and the others.
The station easily gave way to query. While it did not have direct access into whatever mainframe was contained within the facility, security logs and records were open and free to view. The system had never been logged out, and for some reason, time out protocols had failed to kick in. Yet, almost all the security footage showed nothing for the span of days prior, even stretching into weeks. The only activity that could be observed was the lighting fixtures in the hallways slowly going dim.
The power hadn't failed, as the operational entry had attested, as had this very security station. So the question would be begged as to where anyone was. Or what had happened here.
And then, after the security data continued to go back in dating, it stopped, ceasing just before the two week mark. Nothing else was recorded, no older data to show any of the facility staff at work.
Post by Tycho Kalhalati on May 5, 2023 9:12:51 GMT
"Huh. So they never cut the power?"
Tycho had since taken a position opposite from Eresh, watching the entry route they'd taken in and keeping his keen eyes on the shadows. Easy enough with his hearing to still catch what Queen and Lemon had found, even from his position a little further back.
"Makes me wonder why the turrets are down... if I were whoever wiped the system, I'd have left those hot to keep people out..." The laser module on his handgun flickered a little and dimmed, before returning back to normal with a swift little flick. "... or to keep something in, I guess."
The lack of detail coherency was steadily testing his nerves. The Vlaka's voice was level, and his expression was as unreadable as was natural for his species... but his tail brushed the floor with a slow, anxious sway. There was certainly plenty here now to keep his thoughts scattered, overthinking every little "if" and "maybe;" something only enabled by the already latent uneasiness. He took in a sharp breath and let it out in a quiet sigh, flexing his fingers. Noise, noise, noise.
"... Can one of you two check the security logs for me real quick? Part of me's wondering if the place even went into lockdown in the first place. Might give us a clue to work with, if Faro forgot to wipe those during their cut-and-run."