Paranoia: IC

[Get of W'soran]

Mike lifted the instructions, reading the sheet carefully.

"XM9-357 portable Nuc-Blast Shield" he announced cheerfully "How very helpful, oh look it only weighs two kilograms".

 

[The Archivist]

"Right, these things are radiation protection. I don't understand some of this stuff, but the general gist of it is that you crouch behind them to get past radiation."
"The plan is as follows. We split into two pairs, each pair taking a shield. Jack and D, you two pair up, and myself and Mike will take the other shield. We will scout out the area quickly and efficiently. If you see the bot, do not engage in any form. If fired upon, you may take evasive action, but regroup as quickly as possible. After that we have two options..."
Yakai takes out his PDC.
"Is bot hostile?"
"If yes, Plan A. If no, Plan B."
"Plan A: Jack and D act as a distraction whilst Mike and I deactivate or disarm the bot."
"Plan B: Jack and D act as a diplomats whilst Mike and I fix the bot."
"Subroutine: limit damage. Do not destroy the bot or damage the surroundings. In R&D, everything is a prototype: anything you break is likely to cause loss of the valuable time of high-clearance bods auto-correct citizens. Any move to deliberately damage or destroy apparatus, the labs or the bot, even for short term benefits, without confirmation from me are to be deemed deviations from the plan and compromising the mission."

Yakai stops, takes a breath and looks hard at the other.
"Do you understand what you need to do?"

 

[Get of W'soran]

Mike smile grew wider
"Fixing a bot? That sounds good to me, a proper technical services job." he said sounding somewhat relieved.

"A solid plan."

 

[spineyrequiem]

Speakers in the ceiling crackle to life 'Congratulations on your assignment to this prestigious mission, Troubleshooters! I have every confidence in your abilities! Guard squad, please take these eager repairmen down to the Testing Room!'

The guards all snap to salute and say, in unison, 'At once, Friend Computer!' As the speakers turn silent once more, the guards lose their smiles. 'Come on, get moving.'

A short walk down the corridor and the group are standing before a huge, safe-like blast door. The guard whose card was broken steps forward 'Greg-G-PTU-2 reporting...'

'Citizen, have you any actual proof of that?' Greg-G turns in surprise at the interruption from one of the other guards

'Well, no, but...'

'Oh dear Citizen. You must be very unhappy about this. Here, have a mood elevator.' The guard proffers a pill, which Greg sullenly swallows and steps back into line. The guard who interrupted steps forward and clears his throat.

'Roddy-G-PWD-3 reporting. Repair squad about to enter Testing Room. Open the blast doors.'

An alarm sounds and a light flashes as a calm voice from the speakers repeats 'Caution. Testing room about to open. Caution. Testing room about to open. Caution...'

 

[The Archivist]

Yakai passes one of the shields to Mike and the other to Jack.
"Raise shields people."

 

[Johnny-Crass]

Jack grumbles something about rather being with Mike but gets behind his shield and waits for D.

 

[spineyrequiem]

After about a minute the alarm stops and various bars and locking mechanisms begin to bang and grind within the door. The guards all take a respectfully large step back.

 

[The Archivist]

Yakai ducks behind Mike's shield.

 

[Get of W'soran]

Mike positions himself carefully making sure he's fully behind the shield.

He keeps smiling, albeit more nervously.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

Jack proceeds not bothering to wait for D.

 

[Get of W'soran]

"Protects from up to 85 kilo-tons." he muttered to himself uncomfortably remembering the instructional diagram only showed the shield protecting a single person.

 

[Mello]

D blinks and looks around him, in his little deluge he had missed jack leaving without him. Sighing only on the inside he turned around and leant against the wall, getting his wetstone out and grinding the new sabre against it , producing a soft shearing noise. Some of the impurities from the sword were falling off now.

 

[spineyrequiem]

A collection of bangs, crashes and finally an anticlimactic squeak then silence reigns once more. Then, with an almost imperceptible sound the massive, metre-thick door begins to swing ponderously open.

'Come on, get in there.' The guards begin hustling the group towards the door.

 

[The Archivist]

"Stick to the plan people."
Yakai nudges Mike.
"In we go, stick to cover, watch for any radiation."

 

[Get of W'soran]

Mike moved through the entrance slowly, keeping the shield in front of him, pausing for a moment as he took out his PDC and reading something on the screen.

 

[spineyrequiem]

The room is seven metres wide and ten metres deep. The door is on one of the seven-metre walls. A standard Computer console with keyboard, display screen and sensor array is on the opposite wall. This console is obviously a very recent installation.

The door is massive, heavily armoured and has no visible controls for opening it from the inside. Shielded multicorders and speakers are directly opposite each other in two corners of the room. The walls, floor and ceiling appear to be made of a glossy, plastic substance similar to that used in combat armour, discoloured and distorted in several placesa way likely to come from great heat or massive impacts. A terrible stench fills the room, reminiscent of the food vats and Sanitary Facilities but far more powerful and revolting.

In the centre of the room is the robot Imana-665-C. A power cable leads from the bot to the opposite wall. It does not react to the Troubleshooter's entrance, or the hasty retreat of the guards.

 

[The Archivist]

Yakai looks across at D and Jack, then pokes his head out for a quick moment before ducking back behind Mike and the shield. He does some quick calculations on the PDC.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

Jack stared back at D "You going catch up ugly? Now would be a good time. Be there in a minute Mike dont leave without me handsome!"

 

[The Archivist]

"Stop the lechery Jack and be serious."
Yakai took another quick peek at the surroundings.
"Mike, you're a bot techie right? Can you summarise Imana for me."

 

[Get of W'soran]

"Unknown. Not your usual production bot." Mike said using his PDC to snap a picture of the bot.

Looking at his PDC and zooming the image for more detail he Shook his head "Likely extremely experimental and almost definitely dangerous, this is R&D afterall. I recommend extreme caution. Let me get close enough to attempt repair but with something so unusual...deactivation might be more within our ability.

Looking at Yakai he smiled nervously "That distraction plan is probably a good idea"

 

[The Archivist]

"I don't want your opinion, I want your knowledge. Is the damage to the chamber from something Imana has or is it left over from past experiments? Does it have weapons? Heavy lifting apparatus? Nuclear shielding? Egg whisks and a frying pan?"
Yakai shook his head.
"Deactivation is the last resort, and even then we can't do any damage to the bot itself. R&D would have our heads if we broke anything."

 

[Get of W'soran]

Mike smiled at Yakai as the team leader blathered on, waiting for the man to finish.
"Sadly R&D did not outfit me with schematics for their experimental tech." he informed Yakai cheerfully.

"Also having never been in this room before I can't say I know the rooms previous conditions."

Smiling he gestured at Imana-665C "You'll have to rely on an observational analysis of the bots ability."

 

[spineyrequiem]

D is shoved in by the guards and the locking mechanisms of the door sound as the group is sealed into the room. Suddenly, a loud whirring sound comes from the bot. The cone-shaped device spins around to train on the Troubleshooters as the bot lurches forwards towards them.

 

[The Archivist]

Yakai drags Mike to one side, keeping him and the shield between him and Imana.
"Plan B people, quickly. Unless there's radiation, we should split up and spread out."

 

[Mello]

D dives behind the radiation shield as reality was shoved into his face. He glanced down at his PDA.