[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn had elected to use her new identity as Marion Bradley to sit somewhat apart from the others.  Greg had done his job well and Robyn was considering giving him a nice bonus when this was all done.  Her top identity was as a temp staffer for the secretarial pool, but it was flawed, alerting the dock security staff to a fake ID, but upon further examination, they were able to see that she was in fact an investigation agent for EVO, sent to check on security measures at the aquacology.  She had smiled at the two security men and taken them aside to explain things.  They had passed her onto the barge with promises of keeping her secret, but she knew that they would alert their bosses of her presence.  Her personal knowledge of EVO personnel, reinforced by what she has dug up in her searches during the flight over, give her a good working knowledge of the security personnel at the local office as well as the Office of Security (Pacific).  The other staffers on the barge are sitting away from her, giving her plenty of room and letting her surmise that her presence on the barge is known to others.

The water is choppy and affects several of the returning aquacology in predictable ways, although Robyn handles it well.  After all, she suffers from desertion syndrome, not sea sickness.  Towards the end of the trip, Robyn becomes aware that some of the crew are concerned about something.

[Jack_Spade]

Isaint had frowned at his identity. Greg had made him a member of the SecOps for the installation - that was ok and according to Isaint's wish - but he couldn't shake the feeling that Greg had tried to get in some personal revenge for the whole ordeal by giving him the name Pippin Galadriel Moonchild Myer. The guy had claimed that this was a real employee transfer scheduled to happen anyway in two weeks and was the safest way to get him in with access to sensitive parts of the installation... but still. Although Isaint had to admit that the real PGMM did look a bit like his current face - mainly because of the scars and perpetual scowl. Probably a side effect of growing up with that kind of name.

Isaint needed his concentration power to ignore the choppy sea - until the business with the shadow spirit he never had had any troubles with motion sickness - but now his motion sense had been amplified and the lingering sickness plagued him.

Isaint couldn't help but notice that the ship crew suddenly became nervous when they neared their destination - a small light house in the middle of nowhere - where the transfer to the Bathysphere was supposed to occur. 'I wonder if they do splicing experiments down there...'

[adamu]

Mortimer Malachowski (aka Alouicious Harlan Guthrie) sat alone at a table on the edge of the observation deck drinking beer and studying the CTec schematics. With no plan whatsoever, memorizing them (a whole lot better than relying on that mind-softening AR crap) would at least give his team half a shot at formulating a working strategy once they had a twenty on their target.

The chair and table were annoying - he had wanted to perch himself up on the forward gunwale, but he supposed he oughtn't attract attention. Damned pencil-necked corpers'd be all in a hissy thinking he'd fall overboard or something. And Mortimer Malachowski was no thrillseeker. A simple technical consultant - albeit without a remit, unassigned to any work unit in the place. The guards had assumed his cover story without asking - her was there as advisory support for the incognito sec personnel inspecting the aquaology.

Poor seating and crap beer notwithstanding, he was tremendously enjoying the choppy water, and the way the ocean spray mixed refreshingly with the burgeoning rainfall. it was the sailor's life for him - though sadly he not for it.

The surface unit was easily visible now. Something was causing a stir amongst the sheep, but if it was important Isaint would take care of it. Al returned to his study of the schematics.

[Jack_Spade]

Isaint felt a profound unease settle over him as the boat began to unload onto the small artificial island. Something wasn't right - but whatever it was, it was to late: The storm was almost here and measured by the number of lightning strikes in the distance it would be a very bad one.
While they still had matrix contact, he contacted his colleagues:
<<I've got a bad feeling about this. When we get there, be ready for action and have those little breathing apparatuses ready - not necessarily because of water but  bad air. We need to get as quickly as possible to the post office and get our equipment crate. The smuggler avoided the controls, so it should arrive almost simultaneously with us.
God speed.>>

With that Isaint followed the other passengers into the inside of the lighthouse and to massive form of the Bathysphere.

[Aria]

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

Silk waited with the nervous corpers while one of the senior types decided what to do.  There was a floating AR message <Host offline. Secondary Protocols in effect> which was obviously causing them distress…at least the lights were on so presumably the life support had fail safe redundancies…but hosts weren’t supposed to go offline!  There was debate about turning the barge around and returning to Tonga but the seas were getting rougher and the pitching of the platform suggested that being out there on a boat would be less than pleasant!

“Right, make yourselves comfortable, maintenance and sec personnel front and centre, you’ll go down in the first shifts and see if you can determine what’s going on…”

***
#17

[Jack_Spade]

<<Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Robyn, can you send a spy drone down there with the first crew and have it record everything that happens? Best if you send a second one that stays behind in the BS as a backup relay. If there is something down there that causes a Host Black-Out I'd like to have a bit of forewarning. When the BS resurfaces we can view the recordings and decide what to do next.>>
Isaint sent, while hanging a bit back.

[Mercy Merchant]

Robyn laughs to herself as she stands up and moves to the front of the crowd, showing her ID.  >>That would work except that I am supposed to be part of the security team.  I will deploy one of the drones to fly about and another to be with me and and a third in the BS as recommended.  I have also deployed one to Greg to keep tabs on his whereabouts and would also like to deploy one to each of you to sit on your shirt collars.  I will keep them silent and will take responsibility for deploying them as part of my inspection should there be any questions asked.  All you have to say is that you did not know the drone was there but you do remember a woman brushing up against you before you got on the boat.  I am heading down in the first left and will try to keep in touch.  Al, I..................<<  The pause is a few seconds. >>Never mind.  I will see all of you in a bit and we can drink vodka shots all night.  Ciao.<<

[adamu]

There was clearly something wrong down there. And down there was an incredibly vulnerable environment where anything wrong was automatically very very wrong. Isaint was clearly making the right play letting the first batch of corp drones be their scouts, and he was silently congratulating himself on naming the ork their leader, when...yup....again.

There was nothing for it. Robyn, Rick, Isaint - didn't matter - he couldn't let one of their team shoulder the risk alone, even if they were endangering themselves unnecessarily. Stupid Dog would probably think he was doing it for Her, but She didn't understand that he'd do it anyway, but since it happened to be in line with the way She liked things, he'd milk Her for all the juice She had.

He bumped Isaint's shoulder on his way past, muttering, "Stay frosty, Pipster baby," before taking his place not next to but near Robyn in his role as her incognito technical advisor.

[Jack_Spade]

'Shit'
Isaint wanted to curse loudly and vividly but kept his cool. Now he was torn between keeping his teammates safe and watching out for Silk, their employer. His first impulse was to follow the two. Actually his first three impulses where to do just that. But that would mean leaving Rick and Silk up here and potentially walking into the same trap as his other two chummers.
There was no good solution.
<<Stay safe. If there is trouble get into a safe place. We'll come for you armed for bear.>>

[Aria]

[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]
 
Silk responded to Alyce’s text <<I’ll go down too, our friend has provided me with a maintenance pass.  We’ll likely go out of comms as soon as we are a few meters down…for whatever reason the link to the aquaology seems to have been severed.  If we can easily re-establish that we’ll assess it once we’re down…the communication blackout might work in our favour but our principle defence from outside interference will be the storm>>
 
And with that she followed the other designated passengers in to the lift which shortly afterwards pulled away from the surface platform and began a gently arced descent along massive cables down towards the aquaology below.
 
Silk ignored the small pressure pings as the pod descended into the stygian depths, pressing her face to one of the thick portholes.  The whole trip took just under thirty minutes but at five minutes out the lights from the base below them became visible, reaching up out of the gloom and flashing off the flanks of the sea life that flitted at this depth.  Moments later AR displays lit up with the CTec logo… <<Well somebody’s home>> she texted to Alyce…but a Mark query via her deck indicated that her ID didn’t give her access privileges to the host…at first she thought that Greg had stiffed them, but from the glances to her fellow passengers it seems that they were also having similar issues in logging on to the very active host…
 
***
 
Moments later the pod settled with a gentle hiss in to its cradle on the station itself and various mechanical noises and AR displays indicated that life support seals had been established. The circular hatch retracted in to its recess and one by one the passengers stepped out in to the bay beyond.
 
“Welcome back, please step this way in to processing” as they are greeted by two CTec uniformed sec officers…
 
***
#18
 
 

[adamu]

Remembering Isaint's advice, Al switched his air supply, just until they got through this processing business.

He looked around at the others from the BS to gauge whether this processing thing was routine or out-of-the-ordinary...

[Aria]

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

The passengers react much like the corporate sheep they are, but one of the senior managers, Derek Coker from his AR badge, pushes to the front

“What the hell is going on?  Why have our host access privileges been revoked?  Come on Daniels, what is happening?”

“I’m sorry sir, please proceed to processing…”

“Frag that, I want to talk to Cooper now”

The sec guard remains impassive but he draws the holstered taser at his side and with a gesture activates two Colossus anthroforms from their charging bays, presumably there for cargo hauling, to begin to shepherd the corpers in to processing…

***
#19

[Jack_Spade]

Helplessly, Isaint saw the team's client slip in with the rest of the first group just as the heavy door was locked and secured.
Isaint couldn't help it: He uttered a string of German profanities that made the rather English looking gentleman next to him look up with a mildly vexed expression and said: "Now, now. Surely having to wait up here for the next transport can't be that bad, can it?"

Isaint sighed and remembered the role he had to play: "My apologies, but this is my first visit to the acquacology and at this rate I'm going to be late for my orientation training - a great first impression."
The man's features turned a shade friendlier: "Don't you worry to much about that. They can't very well blame you for the delays and the broken Host, can they?"
"I guess you never worked for a security provider. Being unlucky is just as valid a reason to get yelled at as a real mistake."

Isaint turned away to stare out to sea while the giant steel cable started to unwind, lowering the bathysphere into the depts. Something was going on and the better part of his team headed into danger without him. And all his weapons safe his taser were out of his reach.
He took a look around, searching for Rick - he wasn't sure if it would have been better for his mage friend to be also on the first ride down or not.

Frustrated and a bit anxious he waited for the next haul...

[adamu]

Al didn't have a problem with confined spaces. He hadn't been named No. 1 Bilge Rat in Proteus's Troubleshooters for nothing! But he had a serious problem with being kept in confined spaces. And while staying cool and not blowing your cover had its place in the grand scheme of things, his gut was screaming that every step toward "processing" was a step in the wrong direction.

Cargo loaders herding corporate managers and zombie-like responses from sec goons to people they know by name...no way he was getting marched meekly into the showers. Maintaining an outward calm, he stuck to the middle of the crowd while looking around for his best play...

[adamu]

Robyn steps forward to the security man as Coker is arguing with him.  She quietly waits until the manager is whisked off, then speaks once it’s clear her ID has been scanned.  "It looks like I have come at a bad time for this inspection.  Please feel free to use me in any capacity you would like.  My primary purpose here is to examine your tech and try to determine what sort of improvements you might be able to take advantage of down here for security purposes.  To that end I have an assistant with me and I am prepared to deploy several small drones to help me gather data and can make a DNI connection to the hardware.  So, may I assist you here or can you give me a place to work from where I will be out of the way?”