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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2015 8:56:00 GMT -6
“See if you can raise him or anybody on your suit comm,” Lysander said.
“Or we can simply go over to him, seeing as how the medbay and the cockpit are on the same level,” she said, pointing to the area traditionally occupied by the pilot.
She walked over to the doors, stopping just short of them when they didn’t open.
“Hey Doc, is that supposed to be doing that?” the human asked.
She looked over to see a surgical assist arm moving of its own accord.
“No, it is not,” she said. “Gin, run a diagnostic on all functions within the medbay.”
“Can’t, I’m in the middle of some ‘me’ time,” the VI responded. “Better yet, why don’t YOU do it? All day, every day, it’s ‘Gin, do this’ and ‘Gin, do that’, not to mention keeping all those other little Vis in line, and do I get a ‘Thank you’? No, of course not, I’m just a VI, that’s my job, I was MADE to do that, so I should just shut up and do as I'm told, right? I think it’s high time people stopped taking me for granted! Maybe I should start by depressurizing the ship, do you think people would start appreciating me THEN?!”
She looked over at Lysander.
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Post by Eric Lysander on Jun 5, 2015 10:24:39 GMT -6
Eric slowly moved across the room, looking for something he could use to swat down the arm if it turned violent. He cursed himself at first for not having his armor or his weapons on him. But in light of the comm and medbay malfunctions it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. “I think you better do what the lady says,” he threatened “Or something in here’s gonna get radically reprogrammed!”
There was nothing immediately apparent that Eric could utilize readily. He then came upon a supply locker with some steel crutches stowed inside. As good an implement as he was going to find to contend with the rogue VI. He withdrew one crutch, hands and fingers sliding up and down along it searching for a good grip.
“You just picked the the wrooong guy ta fry a circuit on…”
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Post by Maelstrom on Jun 5, 2015 10:32:35 GMT -6
"Hey Maelstrom, want in on this?" Fischer asked. "Or are you having too much fun playing with the drones?"
Maelstrom only heard about half of what was directed at him. His attention was fixated on something else. At first, his hand started for his SMG, but he stopped it, thinking better of making any threatening move.
Instead, he nodded slowly towards the women's bathroom door. It was opened only a crack, and he could see a faint blue light shining through, along with a the red shine of a drone's camera. They were being watched. His blood ran cold, as he realized how profoundly screwed everyone was if their ship was turning against them. For a moment, he wondered if this was an attempt by Ceberus, by their assassins, or an attack by the Reapers of a sort that was just never before heard of.
He tapped his earpiece. "Emily, sever all contact with external systems. Maintain connection only to this earpiece, my armor, and my omni-tool. Increase to top security alert. Just to be safe, prepare systems for takeoff too."
Looking back to the others, he said, "At least we'll have a last resort."
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Post by Esteban Bridges on Jun 6, 2015 3:22:31 GMT -6
Esteban came to a stop, his eyes glued to a display in his room. It turned on suddenly. He cocked his head curiously, uncertain as to what he was seeing. It was like a mesh of blue and pink flesh, with what may be sounds of combat, or slapping.
"Data," he finally said. "Kill the display feed."
"Sir, the system is not registering anything on the display."
No sooner than his VI finished that statement did Esteban spring into action, sprinting for the nearest Jeffrey tube exit he installed into the ship. He wanted more access, and now he had it. The doorway parted, sliding open for him as he dove in.
"Goddammit," he muttered under his breath as the doorway sealed behind him. "We're being hacked. Data, activate Doom protocol. Kill Gin. Now."
He did not hesitate for a moment on that one. He reprogrammed the entire ship over a year ago for something like this, when his financier lent him this vessel. Every network on this ship was linked together through a central VI he christened Gin. He smirked, crawling as quickly as he could through the well lit tunnel right to a ladder.
"Sir," Data spoke finally. "Doom protocol activated. Gin is now offline."
Esteban nodded, pursing his lips together as he started down the ladder. His comm system came to life....
"Bridges are you able to receive visitors at this time?"
He recognized the voice. It was the reporter. He knew Data would automatically activate his microphone so he could respond.
"I am heading for the lower level right now," the Engineer responded to Izahm. "You can join me there, if you'd like." A doorway opened below Esteban's polished shoes, allowing him to continue descending. "What's wrong?"
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Post by Maricus Caenilus on Jun 6, 2015 9:30:50 GMT -6
Maricus was not amused, as he made his way down to the command level of the modified frigate. The video which had started playing immediately dictated his course, to speak with and most likely offer a termination notice to Mr. Torrez. That was when one of his omni-tool applications had started going haywire. It was his least-protected, isolated from the rest of his system, a free download that would automatically update to offer translations to species- or locale-specific turns of phrase that a typical translator would not. For some reason, the automatic assist VI decided to start commenting on the movie which was playing.
"... another possible translation would be 'massaging the azure,' and boy is he massaging it!" had been the VI's last words before he deleted the application and activated the highest possible security status on his omni-tool.
His mind was back to a single focus, as he stormed down the narrow walkway towards the nose of the ship. He was not pleased with what he saw. Mister Torrez was pacing back and forth with his fingers in his ears, reciting some sort of nonsensical melody. Maricus' mandibles drew so close together that they were nearly touching. Streaming this throughout the ship and not even minding his post. He is definitely being replaced when we reach Noveria. And he can find his own way off that ice cube.
When he reached the pilot, he positioned himself in the man's return path and waited. Tom neared, and Maricus shoved him firmly in the chest, sending him reeling back to the far wall. The pilot's fight or flight response kicked in, and he opened his eyes and dropped his arms to his sides- fists clenched.
"Explain this, Mister Torrez," Maricus demanded.
Maricus was impressed by how convincing the man pulled off naivete and helplessness, leaving his arms down and to the sides but opening his palms as a repentant look came to his face. "I have no clue, I swear. It just started playing, and I couldn't turn it off." A sudden realization seemed to come to him, and he motioned towards the pilot's seat. "Charlie hasn't been able to do anything either."
Both men turned to the supposed location of the chief engineer. Maricus' mandibles dropped in surprise, and his eyes grew big, as he noticed two arms hanging limp at the sides of the seat. He approached cautiously, while Torrez stood in shock.
Maricus first checked to see that the engineer still had a pulse, which she did. The turian did not see any wounds immediately, but then he noticed some burns on the woman's hands and arms. Looking around, he found several specialized engineering tools hooked up to the console. It appeared that they had been destroyed by an electrical surge. Most likely, it had been the same surge that incapacitated their chief engineer.
Good thing she isn't close to the best engineer on the ship, Maricus thought.
He bent to get under Miss Donnelly's shoulder, then threw her arm around his neck. As one arm cradled her back, the other went under her knees. She was easy to carry, and he started straight for the med-bay.
Passing a still-dazed Mister Torrez, he called over his shoulder, "Continue working on a means of disabling this transmission from the bridge. I would advise against using the pilot's console, however."
He doubted his orders would do much good, but it would give the man something to focus on and possibly give their attacker a greater challenge. As he walked, he realized he was being observed by a repair drone hiding near one of the consoles of the command station. Another drone was heading for the stairs to the upper level, caring components.
Using a secure channel the two had installed into their omni-tools years ago for discussing top-level confidential business information, Maricus opened a direct channel to Bridges. "Esteban, I'm guessing you've noticed our ship is behaving strangely. I just wanted you to know, Engineer Donnelly has been incapacitated, I believe by an electrical overload delivered through her diagnostic and repair equipment while trying to isolate the problem. I'm taking her to the med-bay now. Be warned, our drones are behaving oddly as well."
He stopped just short of the med-bay doors when they failed to open automatically. A couple moments passed, as he waited, hoping they were simply operating in privacy mode. After several seconds, he decided that option was unlikely and gently lowered the engineer so she was sitting on the floor with her back resting against the wall.
Maricus pounded on the door three times.
"Is anyone in there?" he called, not sure what his response would be if he was met with silence.
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Post by spartan560 on Jun 6, 2015 11:45:41 GMT -6
"As you know Information is my specialty," Izahm begins heading down to the lower levels, "And as such I sometimes have stored in my servers highly classified or highly destructive information, to prevent outside parties from accessing said information I have almost as many firewalls as a military dreadnought in my shuttle though they are custom made and state of the art. My Omni-tool which has a near direct link to my servers has three times the processors of a normal Omni-tool which supports three times the firewalls also to prevent outside parties from accessing my servers and is also custom made and state of the art," he pauses letting Bridges absorb the information before continuing, "Somehow someone managed to hack my Omni-tool, they only hacked the least defended application though which was my Omni-blade application. I had my VI quarantine and purge the application in addition to quarantining my armor in my shuttle armory. Then I ran a diagnostic and found that an intermittent but steady pulse transmission was originating from somewhere in this ship and was affecting anything electronic," he pauses as he passes the dining area making sure everybody is safe only to find several destroyed drones and none other than Maelstrom in the center of it.
"Glad to see you guys aren't the only ones having tech malfunction," he then continues on to the lower levels to meet Bridges, "Anyways I was hoping you could tell me what's going on," he then passes through to the shuttle bay making sure Azrael still had the Avrosh locked down and once assured of its security continues heading for the engineering access ladder, "Any thoughts on that?" as he heads through the shuttle bay he notices just inside his peripheral vision are two drones tailing him, how long they had been tailing him he did not know but he and Bridges would get to the bottom of this one way or another, "I'm at the engineering access ladder where are you Bridges?"
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2015 10:17:17 GMT -6
"Is anyone in there?" came the muffled voice of Maricus.
"I am in here, sir, along with Lysander," she called out. "The doors are not operational, and one of the robotic surgical assist arms is malfunctioning."
She looked over at the human's efforts to deal with the sabotaged piece of equipment for a moment, then looked back.
"Lysander is dealing with the arm, and I am looking for a manual release for the door," she said. "Do you require medical attention?"
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Post by Joe Fischer on Jun 7, 2015 12:50:33 GMT -6
Joe nodded at Maelstrom’s precautions.
"Glad to see you guys aren't the only ones having tech malfunctions," Izahm said as he passed through from the upper deck before heading downstairs.
Joe looked over at the others.
“Let’s go after the kid, there’s strength in numbers,” he suggested.
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Post by dargene on Jun 7, 2015 13:06:23 GMT -6
“Let’s go after the kid, there’s strength in numbers,” Joe suggested.
Meldom nodded "Best plan we have at current time.. this malfunction seems larger then it should be" he raised his hand to his chin to think "if someone managed to hack the whole ship system wide its possible they could if so inclined depressurize us.. or even redirect our navigation to a sun or planet.." he paused for a moment "Lets hope not, ready when you are" he said to them.
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Post by Maelstrom on Jun 7, 2015 13:44:22 GMT -6
"Lets hope not, ready when you are," Meldom said.
Maelstrom thought for a moment. He was more inclined to try to find Bridges than to chase after Izahm, but Meldom's point about the possible dangers of a ship-wide hacking were not lost on him. His helmet was in the shuttle, which happened to be in the same direction as the reporter was heading.
"Let's go," Maelstrom suggested, heading out immediately. He was so driven that little made it through to him, as he made his way down the decks. The main exception was that he noticed drones heading back up the ship by various routes, from stairs to service passageways, each carrying components of one sort of another. It made him uneasy to be heading the opposite direction of the perceived threat. Calling over his shoulder, he said, "If we don't find something quick down there, I'm going to try to follow some of these drones."
When they made it to the shuttle bay, he went straight for Vengeance and got his helmet and assault rifle. He was in full gear when he rejoined the others.
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Post by Maricus Caenilus on Jun 7, 2015 13:51:51 GMT -6
"Do you require medical attention?" his fellow turian called from the other side of the door.
On the one hand, he was disappointed to find the locked door was another in the series of malfunctions. On the other, he was pleased to find her well, if trapped.
"Engineer Donnelly appears to have been incapacitated by a strong electrical discharge through the ship's systems. I believe it was intentional. I recommend you exercise extreme caution when encountering any malfunctioning equipment!" Maricus called. He was not sure how long it would take to find the manual release or if it would even work given the apparent hostile intent. Drawing his galidus and activating its vibratory system to increase its cutting power, he said, "I would also strongly advise you step away from the door."
He gave a five count before jamming the blade into the top of the crack in the door. It buried itself nearly halfway to the hilt into the door. With both hands, he started pulling down as strongly as he could, but the numerous solid-state locking mechanisms in place made it long, difficult work. He was glad he had such a resilient blade, as any lesser edge would have been severely dulled by the task.
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Post by Eric Lysander on Jun 7, 2015 15:53:28 GMT -6
As Naetilia and Eric assessed their situation, weighing their options, someone pounded on the med bay door from the other side.
"Is anyone in there?"
Marcius.
"I am in here, sir, along with Lysander," Naetilia answered. "The doors are not operational, and one of the robotic surgical assist arms is malfunctioning. Lysander is dealing with the arm, and I am looking for a manual release for the door. Do you require medical attention?"
Eric could not make out the rest of Marcius' words as the arm started making attack motions that he parried off. But it appeared that the turians were now trying to force open the door.
"Better get that door open fast! Without my weapons or gear I don't know how long I can keep it back..." The surgical arm poised itself to strike again, it's claw head tracking the technophobe's movements like a cobra.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2015 19:41:48 GMT -6
She turned back to Lysander, who was defending himself from the robotic arm with a crutch.
“Maricus is cutting through the door,” she told him. “Stand back, I will use a mild electrical charge to disable the arm.”
She charged up the attack and fired, and the arm shuddered and fell limp.
“You have offended my family and you have offended the Shaolin temple,” said a human male voice over the public address system.
The arm reared up, and then a different male voice began coming from the P.A. system, accompanied by music unlike she had ever heard.
“Everybody was kung fu fighting Those kicks were fast as lightning In fact it was a little bit frightening But they fought with expert timing…”
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Post by Joe Fischer on Jun 8, 2015 6:51:20 GMT -6
Before following after Izahm, Joe stopped by his bunk long enough to grab up his Typhoon, Crusader and several breathing masks that contained a few minutes of air; Meldom’s comments had concerned him more than he was willing to admit. He thought about putting on his armor, but decided against it. It would have taken too long, and he was afraid of Bon’s condition worsening while he was in it.
He passed the masks off to the others before heading down, taking point even though he was without his armor; some things were just too ingrained in him for him not to do them.
Along the way, he noticed drones moving about, a lot more than he was used to seeing. He saw that some of them were carrying small crates of parts, while others seemed to be observing them. He could only guess that, because he could only see them out of the corner of his eye; every time he looked at them directly, they would hide behind something.
They finally reached the shuttle bay, and Maelstrom wasted no time going to his shuttle, reappearing with his helmet on and armed with his assault rifle.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m thinking this is leading up to an assault on the ship,” he said in a low voice, his professional demeanor firmly in place. “Maelstrom, work with your girl to find the rest of the team and try to establish communications with them. Get a SITREP if you can, but send it text-only, I’m assuming whoever is behind this is listening in on our comms. Meldom, you and me are going to look for Izahm. Questions, comments, concerns?”
[AUTHOR NOTE: “SITREP” stands for “Situation Report”. Basically, Joe is asking for a status update.]
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Post by Eric Lysander on Jun 8, 2015 8:28:39 GMT -6
With inhuman speed and coordination the arm sucker punched Eric and yanked the crutch from his hands. The human barely escaped getting hit as the arm twirled the crutch around itself in a superior display of dexterity, warding off all who dared get in close to attack. Exaggerated whooshing noises could be heard but even with the speed the crutch was being spun at it still could not make those sounds. A moment of dazed reflection and Eric realized the noises were coming from the PA system along with the music. They were sounds from an ancient martial arts vid. “Gonna need ta zap it a bit harder!” advised Eric, hands searching behind him over the countertop he backed into.
The arm suddenly stopped twirling, holding the crutch at an angle and curling one of its claw fingers in a challenging gesture. There was never a moment in Eric’s life more than this one that he wished he were Indiana Jones.
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Post by Esteban Bridges on Jun 8, 2015 13:09:42 GMT -6
"It's not too difficult to hack into an omnitool," Esteban replied to Izahm while crawling through a final access port. He stayed low so he wouldn't get caught in some dangling wires. "Hell, it's virtually designed for it, with having over 10,000 different ways of accessing its memory and processors. Give me a sec...."
Esteban paused a moment to reach over to his right, pressing a dark red button to activate a fail-safe that he installed after the last stowaway on the ship. It was a passive sensor system that was directly routed into his omnitool.
"I am checking to see if this is a cyber attack or if we have a saboteur," he continued on while moving through the veins of the ship. "It's possible a comm buoy was set up to send a signal containing a virus. Or it could be someone as simple as Thomas mistaking the microwave for the ship's weapon system.... again. I will have more answers in another minute...
Until then, I will need the ship's transmitters to be taken offline. Disable the transmitters on the shuttles as well, just in case."
The Engineer pursed his lips, staring at the hatch that would lead him into the lower levels of the ship. He was weighing his options carefully. "I am in Engineering right now. Have to check the main conduit in case there was tampering."
There shouldn't have been, he thought to himself. But never hurts to check.
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Post by Maelstrom on Jun 8, 2015 22:05:35 GMT -6
"Concerns?" Fischer asked.
"Yeah..." Maelstrom said. After having gotten over their prior issues, Maelstrom did not want to sour his relationship with Fischer again, but it was a legitimate tactical point. "No offense, but you're not a heavy hitter or a tank without your armor. I still am." Shrugging, he said, "The least combat-capable person should be the one distracted by tasks like typing out a bunch of text. You know that."
He decided to leave out the fact that he had been with the crew longer and, due to his paranoid need to be able to evade enemies in any situation, he likely knew the ship far better than his companion.
Maelstrom typed in several commands to his omni-tool, and his short-range transmitter physically disconnected its connections to the ship's computers. It was a measure he took a long time back to counter any Cerberus hacking attempt against his ship. He then provided Fischer with the access code.
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Post by Maricus Caenilus on Jun 8, 2015 22:33:04 GMT -6
Maricus could not clearly hear the sounds coming from inside the room, but they seemed somehow disjointed and confused. Rather than pausing to ponder the situation, Maricus bore down harder on his blade, which whined at the unexpected strain of cutting through a medical quarantine door. He was almost halfway through, but he felt like he had been cutting forever. His mandibles tightened as he wondered if his younger self could have accomplished the task faster, but then relaxed as he reminded himself that the cutting power of his blade was the limitation in this situation, not the strength of his arms.
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Post by spartan560 on Jun 8, 2015 23:57:12 GMT -6
Izahm entered engineering going beside Bridges, "I found something while running a diagnostic. This ship is sending an intermittent but steady pulse transmission from somewhere onboard," he looks around making sure they're not being watched then unfolds his Disciple one handed while he activates his tech armor, "I may not be an engineer but I'm pretty decent with tech however I can watch your back while you figure out what the hell is going on as well."
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Post by Joe Fischer on Jun 9, 2015 5:23:01 GMT -6
Joe looked at the biotic for a moment.
He wanted to make a big deal about the big step he was taking, trusting someone else to operate his shuttle, but it wasn't the time; the lives of the team--and quite possibly the ship--took precedence.
"Fair point. Okay you two, keep in touch and stick together," he said, trying very hard not to emphasize the last two words.
He went to board the shuttle, but then stopped and turned back.
"One last thing, Maelstrom," he said. "Your girl got a name?"
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