Mass Effect: Going Dark

[General Havoc]

"There are active wireless networks present within the facility. We are attempting to compromise them."

With that, Shaddai set two thousand of his programs to hacking each of the two identified networks. The second seemed too intermittent to risk uploading, but penetration would at least enable Shaddai to determine what the hell it was, as well as to employ more rudimentary methods.

[Soleimon Berserker]

"I've got Shaddai's back, though am I the only one here who suspects a heavy mech? I've heard stomps like that before, last time it was a Geth Armature unit....", Sol said with a slight shudder, though a quick glance at both many and Shaddai caused a small chuckle to ripple through. "No offense you two."

Trailing his submachine gun over the whole, the Quarian's body shimmered a purple-blue for a moment as he set a barrier in place over his shields for the first time since the battle started. Some people imagined blocks as their focus personification, others stone, or sheet metal. Sol'Amon imagined coils of rope winding unending around his body, growing tighter and thicker as time pressed on and more length added on to the padding, it was a slightly archaic way of thinking but it had gotten him through the war.

"So, once Shaddai gets through this whats the game plan? And if anyone mentions launching a BPQ they're getting thrown in first." Ziran joked, it was a defense tactic to disperse any and all nervousness he felt walking into a blind situation.

[Cynical Cat]

"If we're lucky it's a heavy 'mech," said Mikhail. "That'll use our tech base and be susceptible to our hacking attacks. If it's Geth shit, then it'll probably laugh off our hacks and we'll have to kill it the old fashioned way."

[Sabre72]

"Maybe we should raise comms and see if anyone else is about like the researchers."I can provide my N7 credentials if we have to do a identity check," Said Junko firmly.


effortlessly Junko built her biotic barrier by visualizing a whirlwind around her with lighting shooting around within it.

[General Havoc]

"We have experience in neutralizing Geth armature technology," said Shaddai over the coms. "Their technological base is derived from the same source as our own. We have reasonable confidence in our ability to negatively affect Geth heavy units should they be present."

[Soleimon Berserker]

Glancing around at the others, Sol grinned behind his helmet before patting the Geth in front of him on the back companionably. "Well then, maybe i'm not so worried about a heavy mech after all, still don't wanna see one though."

[JD196]

The krogan kept his weapon trained on the base despite the comm chatter. "We're not going to get anywhere by waiting it out. I'm going to attempt to draw it out so you can catch it in a crossfire." Tallos started to advance. "Somebody attempt to get one of the researchers up on the comms, see if they have a visual on the mech. If there's a chance it could be friendly that would save us a lot of effort."

[Sabre72]

Junko raised her hand to the krogan, "wait, let me attempt to contact them first before your face meets another rocket."

Junko key her comm to attempt to contact anyone within the area, " This is Lieutenant Mori alliance special forces to the owners of this outpost we are here to extract you."

[White Haven]

"Odds of them believing a Systems Alliance ID given our species mix? Nil..." Iona muttered in the privacy of her helmet, carefully NOT keying her transmitter. Meanwhile, she carefully moved forwards and around the base, staying within sight of the advancing Krogan in case something took the bait.

Krogan bait, what are we fishing for...

[frigidmagi]

"Tallos, stand down and take a covering position. Shaddi, you to. We're not fishing, we're fighting. Those of you not detailed to be covering element form on me. Iona, do you got anything?" Lysander asked.

[JD196]

"Lysander, we have no Idea whether what's in there is hostile." Tallos grudgingly pulled back. "If this plan of yours gets me killed, I will haunt you."

[Sabre72]

Junko facepalms, then forms up on Lysander

[Soleimon Berserker]

Groaning under his breath, Sol golden eyes narrowed slightly behind his mask as he moved on to the human's left, standing slightly behind.

'Ugh, I guess this is what happens when you get a group of leaders and loners together. Reminds me of why I normally work solo missions.'

[rhoenix]

Shaddai's network exploration, extending two thousand programs to each of the networks to very thoroughly, though anonymously examine both had returned a wealth of information, though not all of it made sense.

The first network, glitching and with random hiccups, appeared to be the remains of the facility computer system and VI. From a mindset of data, it appeared that large caches of information had been accessed recently, about the most current base personnel, and purpose.

The data remaining was fragmented - but it appeared that the secret experiments here, funded by an anonymous volus bank account number, were centered on a YMIR mech.

There were two sets of files - the first were far more prepared, with projections and redundant presentations of data items, with almost a gaudy appearance. They centered on hardening the design, to allow it to operate in more extreme conditions than the current model allowed for.

The second set of files appeared to be the equivalent of handwritten notes and ideas, centering on the transference of intelligence, and how this might be achieved. These notes were far more fragmented, and had large gaps in the procedure - though the intent was clear.

As for the second network, it appeared to be multiple hardened firewalls protecting a central datastore, which was not available through the anonymous level of access these two thousand programs of Shaddai's were using. All that was available appeared to be some very basic information on a YMIR mech, though large portions had been rewritten, and now referenced points in the datastore, to which Shaddai did not have access.

Iona's quiet explorations revealed no immediate sign of anything nearby, though she heard regular thumping sounds from deeper within one of the rooms of the facility. Additionally, very strange noises carried faintly and thinly through the air from within the facility.

[Soleimon Berserker]

Glancing over at the Geth, Ziran's head tilted to the side slightly in question, "So what d'ya got Shaddai? Anything of note?" The synthetic had been generally silent as he hacked the facility, so much so that even the Quarian had avoided making any snide comments.

[Sabre72]

With a sigh Junko said, "No response from my broadcast prepare for wounded".

With no luck trying to reach anyone Junko glanced at Shaddi who seems to be occupied, Junko then glanced at sol with a raised vizor that showed a confused, but somewhat curious look.

[Soleimon Berserker]

Feeling Junko's gaze on the side of his helmet, Sol glanced at the human Vanguard before shrugging his shoulders. "Eh, I kinda assume he must have found something interesting on their files, if a single computer can go through a data search in a few minutes, a Geth would be able to do so in almost no time at all. Unless something really interesting caught his attention he...."

Quirking his nose slightly as he realized he'd already begun to personify the Geth platform with a gender, he finally shook his head to break himself off from the tangent. "...They would've told us. Meaning that something caused them to start studying the data at a closer level."

Once again the Quarian's nose quirked slightly as his head unconsciously tilted to the side in an almost instinctual sign of confusion, hailing back into his race' ancestry.

'Do I really remember that much about the Geth from those lessons during my childhood? Cause we sure as hell didn't bother studying them in the war, then it was more about how to take them apart than how they functioned.'

[Sabre72]

Feeling Junko's gaze on the side of his helmet, Sol glanced at the human Vanguard before shrugging his shoulders. "Eh, I kinda assume he must have found something interesting on their files, if a single computer can go through a data search in a few minutes, a Geth would be able to do so in almost no time at all. Unless something really interesting caught his attention he...."

Quirking his nose slightly as he realized he'd already begun to personify the Geth platform with a gender, he finally shook his head to break himself off from the tangent. "...They would've told us. Meaning that something caused them to start studying the data at a closer level."

Once again the Quarian's nose quirked slightly as his head unconsciously tilted to the side in an almost instinctual sign of confusion, hailing back into his race' ancestry.

'Do I really remember that much about the Geth from those lessons during my childhood? Cause we sure as hell didn't bother studying them in the war, then it was more about how to take them apart than how they functioned.'

Junko Nodded at Sol, "fair enough", Junko's stance told sol that she would have more questions later, of course that all depends on if he can understand human body language.

"Shaddi" Junko addressed, "do you have something we do not know?"

[General Havoc]

Sol had no way of knowing that the thing causing Shaddai's hesitation was Sol himself. A pat on the back and a kind word were perhaps nothing to anyone else, and less than nothing to the average machine, but this was a creator, expressing in even the slightest possible terms, confidence and kindness, towards a collective that had spent three centuries in exile. Sol'amon's kind gesture had sent nearly two hundred of Shaddai's constituency programs into various segmentation faults, and triggered an infinitely complex series of subroutines and emergency meetings that were only now resolving themselves. So long did it take for Shaddai to pull itself back together that the organic members of the squad had noticed it, and the Geth protoform half-turned back to the creator, its head-flaps clicking open and shut rhythmically.

"Please... forgive us," said Shaddai. "There are multiple active networks present. One of them appears to relate to the operations of an YMIR-class omni-mech. There appear to have been... modifications made to the mech's operational parameters. We have been unable to determine the nature of these modifications, and are now attempting to obtain a higher grade of access."

"The other network is a financial and project database. We are still collating the relevant files, but they appear to relate to the transference of an unknown intelligence from one location to another. There are detailed project notes concerning these efforts. Based on these references, we conclude that the disturbance within the base is a modified YMIR-class omni-mech which has had an artificial or perhaps even organic intelligence digitized and grafted into its operational subroutines."

The concept was horrifying, as much to a Geth as it must have been to the others. But Geth did not typically exhibit horror vocally.

"Whatever the exact nature of this mech, we believe it poses extreme risk to any who would attempt to approach it. We will attempt to gain control of its higher functions and disable it before we proceed."

[Soleimon Berserker]

Beneath his helmet, Sol's proverbial hackles rose slightly as he took in the Loyalist collective's news. This wasn't a good situation, running into a YMIR on the battlefield was a nightmare on it's own, taking down one of the heavy mech's was either a lesson on high class hacking, or a spartan offense to cut through it's shields and armor. One of the few saving graces of facing off against the walking tanks was their notoriously low reaction speed to threats. Adding an AI's capabilities to that rendered most of those advantages to nil, meaning they either took his route of expertise and put it down with a show of force, or.....they snuck up on it.

Glancing at the others, the Quarian's golden eyes narrowed slightly as he spoke, his sarcastic tone gone and replaced by a cold disposition, showing off a bit of the young man's former occupation.

"If Shaddai says we've got an AI installed in a YMIR I believe them."

Taking a hand off his Locust to draw it over the top of his head in annoyance at the situation, the Vanguards next words came out in a growl, "Maybe those researchers deserved whatever happened to them, regardless, we know our job. We need to come up with a way to get in this place without drawing too much this thing's attention after Shaddai's done what he can."

Turning his gaze over to Junko and Iona, Sol inadvertedly forgot all about Lysander's attempts to lead, preferring to receive his information from sources with more experience with his questions.

"You both were scouts in the war right? That means you know something about avoiding drawing too much attention from an AI enemy in a combat situation, have any ideas? My units were designated to direct combat so I never needed to sneak by the Reapers agents. Krogan, Turians, and Vorcha sure, I might have a shot. A CPU and processing unit? Not so much."

[Sabre72]

Turning his gaze over to Junko and Iona, Sol inadvertedly forgot all about Lysander's attempts to lead, preferring to receive his information from sources with more experience with his questions.

"You both were scouts in the war right? That means you know something about avoiding drawing too much attention from an AI enemy in a combat situation, have any ideas? My units were designated to direct combat so I never needed to sneak by the Reapers agents. Krogan, Turians, and Vorcha sure, I might have a shot. A CPU and processing unit? Not so much."

Junko locked her gaze upon Sol, "yes my N7 unit did hit n runs and ambushes, it was my job to scout out where to do these ambushes, from what I can remember from a heavy mech is that surrounding it in the open would be the best option."

Junko motions to the cargo containers, and various parts of scrap around the team, " we make 2 flanks of cover like this", Junko motions her hand at a slant with her finger tips pointing down and the outside of her hand pointing toward the would be door," on both sides of the door about 300 to 500 yards away."

Junko tossed her hip to her other side, her gaze still firmly on sol, " now getting the mech outside is the hard part, going inside after it is stupid."

Junko glanced towards Shaddi as if consider something, "Shaddi your a geth, if that mech has a A.I in it, do you think you could get its attention remotely, piss it off enough so it comes to find you out here while we are all in cover, unlike the blood-pack they didn't use cover and look at where that got them."

[White Haven]

"No eyes, still moving in," Iona succinctly replied to Lysander's inquiry, falling silent for a span until another voice crackled across the network with a question. "Unfortunately, I don't generally tote around focused thermal-lance charges on a daily basis," Iona's bone-dry voice drifted across the tactical network as the woman herself slowly, carefully drifted closer to the facility. "If walking tanks are back on the menu again, I'll have to see about kitting back up to my Reaper War loadout. As for avoiding attention...if it's an actual AI, particularly one with parallel-processing worth the name, 'distraction' isn't the world. You have to saturate its ability to actually observe and monitor contacts. If it's an outwardly-unmodified YMIR, that shouldn't be hard, bloody idiot engineers gave it a single directional optical input. If it's been modded for additional detection, then it comes down to saturating its ability to engage targets."

The stealthed asari paused for a moment, then added, "Which is a bit rough on whoever's on the wrong end of that bloody missile launcher. Back on-topic, I'm as close as I can get without risking direct line-of-sight, holding back in case this thing's got exotic sensors. Let me know when support's in position just in case I draw fire."

[JD196]

Tallos moved quickly to a pile of rubble and crouched behind it, resting his heavy weapon on top. "I'm in an overwatch position, radio silence is probably a good idea."

[Soleimon Berserker]

"Acknowledged."

Tabbing his radio off, Sol's eyes traced over the research building as he began to think. Going through one of the walls had been one of their initial ideas, however this new info made it almost seem foolish, trying to take an AI by surprise would be just as likely to get them all killed as it was to catch the machine unaware. There was always the possibility of opening communications, it didn't have a good chance of being answered but it was a possibility. Then there was the direct combat route, which essentially all took on the hopes of the YMIR modifications not being good enough to kill all of them.....no that option was out. Better to wait for more info from Iona before marrying a strategy.

'Damn it, this job just got a hell of a lot harder than it had to be. But these are the Spectre trials, and Council law states that all AI's are to be seizured, though the Geth kinda throw that law out the window. Peaceful dialogue with the program would probably be the best option but.....how? If this things a corrupt program then it's more than likely insane.'

[frigidmagi]

"If it was gonna be drawn outside, it would have been so by all those screaming mercenaries... We're gonna have to solve this another way. Okay. Those of you not on covering duty, with me. We're not gonna go through the entry it expects. We're back to plan A. On me people." Lysander said, getting up and hustling to the wall. The breach charge sat in his pack and suddenly he could feel every contour.

Time for the traditional engineer solution. First take one bomb...