[adamu]

Before Silk could answer, Al said his piece, making sure to follow Isaint's example by subvocalizing into his microtransceiver.

<<One's out. Natch. Two's no good - soft way or the hard way, leaves all these poor folk down here fer they souls ta be sucked - an' a fair lot might not be infected yet. We go three. But I say we don't fight our way ta Monarch. We fight our way ta whatever server hosts She-HAL. Lotta her kind, they's distributed all over hell an' creation. But down here, not bein' able ta git a signal out, she's good an' isolated. We got a chance ta git 'er by the short hairs, from there we can demand Monarch, a sub, an' the uninfected ta boot. Once we's away we can let Evo or whoever nuke the site from orbit. But I agree on one sad reality - we gotta write off the infected - which is ta say anyone fights us. Gloves all the way off. Prob'ly can't be helped anyway. Hell, any of 'em got kids down here, they'd want ta be sacrificed fer the sake o' they uninfected kin.>>

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn nods at Al's words.  It cuts her to the soul to have to agree with him, but in this case he is pretty much spot on.  Not trusting herself to say something silly or stupid, she leaves her response to just nodding.

[Jack_Spade]

Isaint nodded, but kept silent for the moment.
Rick replied laconically: "I don't care either way. But I might have to call an Air Spirit into me for an electricity aura - that should take care of any nanites coming close.
And no, sorry, that trick only works on me without frying your brains. If I'd known about this CFD shit beforehand I could have learned a spell that does something similar."

[Aria]

[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]

Silk considered the options set out by Isaint very briefly, recognising that though he was notionally in charge of the mission, and she would respect his wishes to call it, she knew that she had a responsibility to these people, dragging them here to the depths of the ocean.  Not every Johnson felt that way certainly but then she wasn’t the typical corp shadow dealer.

“Right now I’m not sure giving up is an easy option with the storm overhead and our route to the sub bay blocked by her AROs.  Negotiation may be an option but I sympathise with Al’s view about letting CFD loose down here if there is still a chance to contain it.  I have seen what it can do in a closed community and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.  So that leaves war… which I would normally never advocate but our hand seems to be forced.  Robyn, can you identify the physical location or locations of the host?  She will protect them obviously and that will mean engaging the infected.  All my research says there’s no known cure and that they are technically no longer human.  I’m not sure that justifies us killing them but if that is really the only way to restrain them then with a heavy heart I will bear that burden.”

***
#28

[Jack_Spade]

"It's war, then. Good. Time to drop the charade and take action. Our biggest trouble will be those screamer rifles on the drones. In these small corridors we can't really avoid to be hit. Those must therefore be our priority targets in any confrontation.

Rick, we'll need one of your bound spirits as a scout, so we can get the drop on any roadblocks. Stay in the back to secure our rear. Al and I will form the front .
Silk, you keep close to Robyn and make sure she has someone at her side if she has to go VR. Have your weapons ready. As soon as we have the direction we have to move fast and preferably again through a route where they can't just lock us out with a few well placed bulkheads."
For a moment, Isaint's cestus blazed in silver white light, highlighting the small engraved crosses.

[adamu]

Considering Isaint's warning about the drone-mounted weapons, Al just about kicked himself. He'd brought a supply of just the thing they needed, and then left it in the hotel, worrying it might raise eyebrows if they were searched on entering. Well, the Good Lord gave men mistakes so they could learn to fix them. He congratulated himself on his resilience and spiritual outlook.

<<Listen, y'all>> he subvocalized <<while this one's markin' our targets, note the three medical substations. Yeah, the main sickbay's ARO'd off, but these three spots ain't, an' they should stock ondansetron. We swing by there on our way to whichever nerve center toots here points us at, we pick up some o' that stuff, it'll take the edge right off anyone gits hit by them screecher doohickies.>>

[Jack_Spade]

<<Good thinking. That could make a huge difference. Although we have to make sure there aren't any nanites lurking in the supplies. Better zap and sterilize them in the microwave before we take them.>>
Isaint replied.
Not for the first time he wondered what he would do if they did in fact become infected. He quickly suppressed the thought that came next - what about his chummers...

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn nods, her mind already reeling with the thought of what being infected would mean.  She pushes them to the side and forces herself to concentrate on the task at hand. "Listen, two things, alright?  One, I recommend that we get to this med bay I am marking for us.  There is an ARO on your map.......now.  We get this stuff and I go into the host while someone nukes them to be sure they are nanite free.  I will find the location while in VR inside the host.  And two, I hope that you kill me quick if I get infected."

[Jack_Spade]

<<Hopefully it won't come to that. And if it does... there are spells to change the body that makes the nanites vanish for the duration. If the worst comes to the worst, we'll have to try that before we kill anyone in our ranks.>>
Isaint knew that he was likely talking about a vain hope - although he had studied new techniques to apply his magic through katas and other martial arts movements, he was far from confident that he could apply them in an emergency yet.

[adamu]

As they made their way purposefully for the medical substation they'd marked outside the ARO cordon, Al reflected on the people he'd crossed paths with just over a year earlier at the Sound Mental Health facility in Bellevue. Women, old men, teenage kids - they'd all forced him to kill them. Zombie-eyed and nearly impossible to put down. That was the first he'd heard of CFD, and he still wasn't sure if they'd been a regular manifestation or some weird technowitch/transhumanist variant. But he'd later learned Winter was involved in that fiasco, and the same was apparently true down here, so he was braced for more of the same ugliness. 

If only that little girl LeFey hadn't been so damned close-mouthed - she'd known a helluva lot more about all this crap than she'd been willing to tell, despite Al's best prodding.

Winter - he still had more questions than answers about that asshole, but he/she/it kept popping up on Al's jobs with an alarming regularity....maybe if they caught half a moment he could get Silky to open up....he had a feeling she knew more even than LeFey had, but no one was talking....

[Mercy Merchant]

When they reach the medical bay, Robyn lets ISaint and Al make sure that it is clear then goes inside with Rick.  She takes a bit of time to grab up a top notch medkit and make sure it is well stocked then moves to where one of the monitors is hooked into the wall and sits down next to it.  Looking around, she nods that she is ready.  >>OK.  I can get in from here.  What exactly do you need me to look for?"

[adamu]

As Isaint explained what he wanted to Alyce, Al picked the lock on the pharma cabinet and proceeded to load ten syringes with ondansetron, two for each of their number, with varying doses based on his estimation of their body weight.

[Jack_Spade]

Isaint had waited for everyone to get into position before speaking to Robyn some more:
<<Ok, as I understand Silk this facility has still some kind of server set up to simulate the matrix down here that the hosts depend upon. I assume they are using the heat from the server cooling to keep the city warm. We need you to look for the highest ranking devices down here. Hacking them for a tracking action is probably to dangerous so instead you might be able to identify the cooling system connected to the servers and get their location - specifically the emergency back up pumps. Those are usually not slaved or directly connected to the servers. If we find them there is a good chance we can extrapolate the location of the servers. If we take out the main matrix infrastructure, the CFD carriers will be forced to rely on a spotty mesh network. For one thing that will force them to congregate to communicate and also hamper their efforts to control the infrastructure down here, since the secondary systems are usually not directly integrated into the network.

Mind you, I don't know much about the system architecture down here, but as far as my experiences with security design go it's at least how I'd set this place up.>>

[adamu]

Everything Isaint said about the place's design made perfect sense. Sadly, even though their schematics had been accurate so far, and even though they'd gotten them from a senior manager with pretty high clearance, the guy was not in a role where he was need-to-know about infrastructure and core system specs. They had all the place's major atmosphered spaces, and excellent detail on living and administrative usage, but there were still large areas that were blank or only vaguely detailed. Their targets were in those areas, and as Isaint spoke Al hardwired himself to Robyn again to point out the highest probability locations for the backbone system based on Isaint's logic and a number of other infrastructural considerations.

<<Fire safety protocols'll be our friend in this. Fire in a place like this, even a relatively small one, can suck the oxygen out of a whole bloc in no time flat. So yeah, they got flame-resistant materials and a nice little halon delivery system. But they's also an emergency system ta seal an' flood any given space. No doubt She-HAL is all over lockin' those permissions up tight, but nothin' she can touch can't be hacked, in theory. An' git me close, I can hotwire anything manually. Few metric tons a seawater gon' ruin any server-based entity's day, so we find her, we can put a gun to her head real nice......Other side o' that coin is....we git all uppity an' cross her red line in the AROs, she can play the same tricks on us. So listen up close, toots....>> And Al, knowing he had nothing to teach Robyn about hacking, set about showing her the telltales in the system that would telegraph any hardware/mechanical moves to seal a given area in preparation for flooding. <<Keep half an eye on that sorta thing while we're in here, we might have enough warnin' ta do something, she turns the environmentals against us. Even while mobile, might be a good idear ta stay in - it don't have ta be full-VR hot sim ever second, ya know....>>

Of course he was just thinking of how to make sure she stayed on top of any threats to the team. Never occurred to him that hot sim was faster but also much more vulnerable, and she'd be in there with an AI - like a bleeding diver versus a damned great white. Nope, that wasn't what he was thinking about with the cold sim suggestion. Not at all.

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn nods.  >>OK, I can do this.<< She grins.  >>I can at least try to do this, anyway.  Al, you are correct that I do not need to be in VR all the time, but it certainly helps.  I can access the host again from this room as some of these instruments and monitors have to be slaved to it.  Would it be better to have me hook up here and then you four lock me in the room when you leave?  That way I can maintain my contact with the host in VR and try to deal with the AI when and if she finds me?<<