Ants among the Flowers(IC)

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd didn’t say anything at first continuing down the ventilation ducts. But she couldn’t help herself. She was sure he was hiding something, she had trouble reading his body language, but it was there. It was a bit of a risk but a little push might reveal a little bit more. She tried to keep her tone conversational.

<<â€I’m sorry I had to ask, but some people seem to lose perspective when dealing with organization like this. Sometime they tend to lose focus and it becomes about revenge instead of justice.â€>>

All the while she kept them moving looking for the evidence they required.

[Semi-Autogyro]

It was more about survival than either of those. Besides, Myrmidon was not one to rest on his laurels with the knowledge and abilities he possessed. << Revenge or Justice means little to me. It would be negligence on my part to not concern myself with their actions. >>

Myrmidon looked ahead of Blodeuwedd. << Take the left vent ahead. That should put us over administration, based on the facility layout. >> How her compatriot knew this was probably yet another question for the heroine.

[Ari]

GM

With a final press on the numberpad, a panel opened on the wall to reveal a retinal scanner and small microphone. Without removing his helmet, the officer leaned down, saying "Groan, vat code 04A-2" he stepped away, letting the other officer space to lean over to the mic and say "Flay, vat code 04A-3." With that, the doors opened soundlessly, and the two began to march down the grey corridor it revealed. Which was nigh-identical to the one they had just left.

They marched in perfect step in single-file, nodding briefly to the guards that they passed, all of whom carried heavy weapons that were to the guns seen in the reception hall as a water pistol is to a bazooka.

The vent Myrmidon indicated was perfectly parallel to the path they were taking, leading to an imposing black door that was barred, irised and shimmered with a barely-visible force field. The now-cramped tunnel that led into the ventilation system of the room had no such precautions.

Behind them, they could hear the distant noises of heavy machinery, and every surface softly vibrated to the mechanical tune of whatever it was that had been set up beneath the foundations of the bar.

After a short inspection at the imposing door from the at least partially mechanical guards, the two officers were given back their uniforms(unsurprisingly revealing they had features nigh-identical to John Smith's) and permitted into the office of their superiors, the doors closing smartly and suddenly behind them. From their vantage point, the two beheld an unexpected scene.

Two unhelmeted clones, one wearing skin-tight black spandex under a lightly-armored exoskeleton that glistened darkly in the stark light, the other wearing flowing robes over a more conventional version of the SHADOW uniform than any seen in the base so far. They were poring over large displays of some kind of gun platform on legs, making adjustments to the model and its accompanying equations while tossing peanuts into each other's mouths with impeccable aim, with the only words that passed between munches being

"Magic"

"Science"

repeated endlessly. At the entrance of the two officers, however, they ceased their exchange, the one advocating for magic turning gleaming and hawk-like eyes on the two with a look of cool disdain, while the one standing for the scientific method actually smiled at the two. As one, the officers bowed, saying "Quaestor, Doctor, intruders have entered the facility on the last opening, the alarm will shortly be sounded, are there any orders?"

The two who seemed to be in charge glanced at each other, before the Quaestor said crisply, in a nearly-precise imitation of Myrmidon's voice "I will retire to the southern levels and attempt to divine their location. Send a few cyborgs and a platoon of wolves from the chambers to guard me" without any further talk, he snapped his fingers and vanished in a roar of blue flame. The doctor sighed and looked apologetically at the officers, saying in his own mimicry "I'm sorry about Burkehardt, he's been troubled with the results of the last batches from the prisons, they never turn out like he wants. I'll go to the west wing, and reinforce this level, stand by for additional soldiers coming from the barracks. Be safe" he added with a note of genuine concern before placing a finger on the towering blue screen behind him, which before the eyes of the two superheroes drew the image into it, deactivating the computer. Tapping the belt of the exoskeleton he said clearly "Dr. Agate, requesting transit, square B-5" and was gone in a shimmer of green light.

Instantly afterwards, a pulsating, grating noise of the common alert used by SHADOW roared to life, overpowering the sensation of thrumming from below with its insistence. The officers gave not the least start, turning and tapping the exit code before leaving the room for the blaring corridors that were already filled with the additional noise of pounding feet.

[Tiffany Korta]

So the gig was up, but luckily they wouldn’t be as easy to find as they suspected. It seems that this base had all manner of defenses from magic, which was something she understood, to obvious clones. But why did they look so familiar?

<<â€It seems we are spoilt for choice. You seem to be the expert on bases like this which would be the best place to start? At least we should probably get out of these vents it probably the first place they’ll check.â€>>

Almost by instinct she clutched the hilt of Dyrnwyn ready for trouble should it start.

[Semi-Autogyro]

Myrmidon grimaced under his helmet. Magic-users always complicated things. He knew a little bit, but how exactly the magiclone was going to search for them was an issue. Plus, he might be immune to the search since he himself was a clone. Too many variables.

What he could do was to take out one or both of the officers that they had followed in now that he had their access codes and then duplicate their uniforms. From there he could potentially run a disinformation strategy. It will have to do.

<< Follow the two that just left through the doors. Eliminate and Impersonate from there. I can cover the cosmetic details. >>

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd was still a little worried by Myrmidon choice of words, but now wasn’t the time to question such things. She began to follow the two as requested keeping a eye out for a possible exit from the vents.

<<â€Whilst I can copy the uniform and hide my feminine form, I’ll have trouble with the voice and if they need to see my face. But I suspect you have some idea on how to fix that?â€>>

For now she decided to concentrate on the probable at hand, hopefully solving the mysteries of this base would reveal a little about Myrmidon’s issue with this organization.

[Semi-Autogyro]

Myrmidon moved with a quiet purpose of efficiency as he silently slid out of a vent behind their two SHADOW officers. He waited to time his strike alongside Blodeuwedds stranglehold, his triangle choke cutting off Officer Flays' blood supply to his brain along with any chance to let loose any sort of verbal warning. He loosened the hold on the officer after he stopped struggling and was pleasantly suprised to see the other SHADOW Officer down.

<< Take the right corridor. First doorway on the left is a utility closest. We can drop them there and procure their equipment, while checking them for any dead man monitoring switches. >>

Myrmidon shifted his grip, letting him easily transport the deadweight of the unconscious clone to the closet.

[Tiffany Korta]

It took a little more effort on Blodeuwedd part to lift the unconscious form onto her shoulders, though it she still made it look effortless. Following Myrmidon instructions she quickly followed him into the broom closet.

As she laid the body out she took the time to examine the uniform for distinctive insignia and other important details, they she sent the relevant commands to her bodysuit. She’d never discovered where the suit had come from but its mimetic fibers seemed to be designed for such task taking on the appearance of the clone’s uniform. Through a combination of constriction and padding managed to simulate his masculine height and build. The cloak did the most impressive part contracting and shifting until it formed the helmet he was wearing including its visor.

[Ari]

GM

With little fuss from either Groan or Flay the two unconscious officers were installed in the closet, the narrow and utilitarian space uncluttered by its regiments of cleaning supplies including a rack of sterilized mops arranged by size with icy precision. Their otherwise perfectly regulation uniforms turned out surprisingly to completely lack dead man switches, or even the standardized keycards meant to track would-be infiltrators. Instead they both had a small rune tattooed on the back of their left hands, a rune that Blodeuwedd recognized almost immediately: the old Germanic rune naudiz. It was faintly glowing with an eerie blue light.

From the hall they had come from the ponderous steps of the two armored and heavily-armed guards approached, their steel-shod feet clanking on the harsh alloys making up the floor. Neither's walk sounded hurried, though through the confiscated helmet's radio Myrmidon heard their hastily-whispered words perfectly.

~"Signal from those two who just passed. Stay on guard, could be re-programming failure"~

~"Alright, but I hope we don't have to shoot our own men"~

They had almost rounded the bend, the faint clicks of disengaged safeties on their massive guns ringing in the air.

From beyond the small command sector, the tramp of lighter soldiers was almost constant.

[Semi-Autogyro]

The rune casued the clone hero to pause slightly as he finished his search, making sure Blods' mimicry and his was correct. Having all the acouterments that the clone troopers were carrying would only further add to their cover, especially broadcasting and communicating on the correct preset frequencies.

Luckily, his check allowed him to overhear the incoming investigative squad. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a nearby stepladder off the wall before closing the door behind him as he strode fowards with intent towards the sound of the weapons being readied. He shot a glance over to his compatriart, and gave her a quick nod as if to say 'I have a plan.'

Unfortunately, he did not have time to fix her subvocal microphone to mimic the speech patterns of the clones. Which, with any luck, would not be an issue.

[Tiffany Korta]

Seeing the runes made Blodeuwedd heart sink, Naudiz meant distress, it looked like she’d found the dead man switch. She pulled up the facemask and squatted down to get a better look at the runes with her goggles and also make sure Myrmidon could see what she was doing. She whispered to him not sure if his comms could be hack, despite his earlier assurances.

“This mark here.†She held up the hand of the clone “It’s a rune it means distress. There using magic as there dead man switch. I’m not sure we going to be able to fool them, but I'll trust your judgment on this one.â€

With that she closed back down the visor and stood back up ready to follow Myrmidon on whatever plan he seemed to have. But she’d have Dyrnwyn near to hand, just in case.

[Ari]

GM

The heavy troopers rounded the bend with evident caution, their ponderous steps thudding slowly on the floor and echoing through the hallway. With a sudden spring, the leaped into the middle of the passage, their gigantic weapons trained on the disguised figures of Blodeuwedd and Myrmidon, fingers on triggers and legs crouched for another spring. When they actually saw the duo they relaxed noticeably, standing back up at their full height, clicking back on their miniguns' trigger safeties and shouldering the oversized firearms as they approached with lighter steps.

`"Oh, it's just you two. We were worried something had happened"` one of them said through the helmet's eerily mechanical-sounding radio link. He turned the featureless helmet towards the janitor's closet for a moment before turning back to the two disguised heroes. `"It sounds like your naudiz beacons activated. Care to explain?"` His comrade leaned idly against the wall, though his tight grip on the small cannon over his shoulder spoke quite loudly about how convinced he was thus far.

By now the scattered thudding footsteps beyond the walls was coalescing into a definite marching pattern, the new influx of soldiers getting into position and preparing to repel the intruders.

[Semi-Autogyro]

Had he not been wearing a helment, the gaze he directed at the new arrivals would have cooled the room a degree or two as he activated the external microphone. << You only need to be worried for whoever was last on the duty log for that utility room. >> He threatened icily to the pair before setting down the stepladder in his hands. << Getting a lungful of cleaning chemicals activated the beacons. >>

Myrmidon then glanced over his shoulder to his esteraz counterpart and back to the duo before taking off his helmet and leveling a grade A superior officer look at the duo "Do you have any more pressing questions? After all, there is only the small matter of potential intruders to deal with. Or have the two of you volunteered to assist in checking the ducts?"

[Ari]

GM

The sight of their mutual father's young face stopped the guards' undercurrent of jocularity. With all speed, they both got rapidly into rigid military posture, saluting Myrmidon and shouldering their weapons much more neatly and saying in eerie unison `"Sir no sir. Please accept out apologies, Officer. We will return to our posts"` the first one said with an all too familiar lack of inflection, movements that had once been flowing and alive now the mechanical articulations of the human machines SHADOW made. Turning about with uncanny smoothness, they walked back down the hall they had come from with heavy and methodical treads.

[Tiffany Korta]

During the whole exchange Blodeuwedd had stayed just behind Myrmidon, ready to react if his bluff didn’t work. She made a mental note of just how easily he’d commanded the two, she assumed, clones. Another strange event of this day to mental store away for a later time.

<>

As she talked she kept scanning the corridor in case anyone else decided to investigate the alert they’d triggered. All the while try to keep up the façade of being just another of the facilities troopers.

[Semi-Autogyro]

Myrmidon waited until he was positive the pair had moved away before placing his helmet back on and moving back to Blodeuwedds' side. He began speaking over their private comm frequency. << Have you ever heard of the Allied disinformation campaign in world war two called Operation Mincemeat? >> He gestured for her to raise her neck so he could touch the commlink he had given her to modify it. << They planted a fake body to wash up on the shore of Spain, with sets of forged documents and made to look like an accident at sea. Since the Spanish government worked with German intelligence, they delivered the items to the Germans. As a result, they believed that the Allied landings were in Greece and Sardinia, instead of the true Allied Objective of Sicily. >>

There was a muted flash of blue as he modified the improvised device further. << That is what we are going to do. We will make them move their forces in an attempt to find the intruders, while allowing us free access across the facility. I can open any of the doors that either of these officers have access to. Optimally, my first strike would be to eliminate the commanders. >>

[Tiffany Korta]

The Order had always placed a great deal of focus on learning lesson from history, and it had also insisted that they study for their exams like every other student. So she knew exactly what Myrmidon was talking about.

<<â€But British Intelligence already controlled all the German agents, and used them to feed the Nazi the same information, a luxury we don’t have at the moment.â€>> paused for the moment s thought <<â€Unless you can plant information that makes us appear to be after another target? But I agree that we should try to subdue the leaders of this little base, and try to find out why it’s here in the first place.â€>>

[Semi-Autogyro]

Myrmidon nodded in agreement, then gestured her to follow him. << That is indeed the case. But we still retain the advantage. >> He stepped past a bulkhead and waited for her to clear it as well, before changing the comm channel to the SHADOW base frequency. "Flay here. Commencing sweep with Groan. Sectors 3a through 3c secure. Seal it off." Switching back to their private frequency, he continued. << Standard SHADOW Operating Procedure. Lock down elevators and then sweep and seal rooms to channel intruders to kill zones such as hangars, mess halls, or other defensively weak locations.>> Myrmidon surveyed their location before indicating the southern hallway.

<< Out of the two commanders, the sorcerer is the prime target. If we continue this charade we can potentially make it to his location unaware and neutralize him.>>

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd gave a little nod of agreement

<<â€I’m in total agreement with you. He’s probably the target that will be most unpredictable. I have a little knowledge of magical practices; can you tell me anything about the magical systems he’s using?â€>>>

To be honest she felt a little exposed at the moment, it was unnerving that she was totally at the mercy of Myrmidon. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the other hero, far from it, but if anything did happen to him she was in a unfriendly base surrounded by a small army of hostile enemies.

[Semi-Autogyro]

The clone hero shook his head as they proceeded down the corridors. << Not especially. I tend to only bother with the knowledge on how to counter magical entities and practitioners, not the more esoteric information. I do know others who are more specialized in those fields however. >> He radioed in another section to be sealed off behind the two before he continued.

<< What I can tell you is that the basis for most SHADOW magics is based on Teutonic and Thule society principles, with the non-cloned users also utilizing aspects of Ancient Egyptian. >> He turned to his counterpart and shrugged. << But I fail to see how that really helps in our current situation. >>

[Ari]

GM

In answer to 'Flay's call a short burst of electronic noise flew through his comm, in which his trained ears could make out ~"Affirmative Flay. Sealing sectors. Keep a close eye out for those intruders."~

The disguised Claremont students moved unmolested through the nearly crowded hallways, passed by jogging bands of SHADOW troops(though Myrmidon noticed that something about their armor and gear was slightly off) that were searching with all speed and care throughout the sectors as they retreated to more defensible positions while the duo discussed the mystic dangers ahead. The base was a maze, all uniformly-lit identical hallways and look-alike doors that were only distinguished by signs on the walls denoting where they led to, and the colored stripes on the floor and ceiling. According to the maps located at various crossways in the base, the magically-oriented commander was located at the extreme edge of the base near the 'medical experiment' sector, with the more scientifically-focused clone of Overshadow dwelling more or less at the exact center, amidst the 'munitions forges'. For all there there was much built the place was cramped, hardly two miles square around and only a hundred feet at its lowest.

As they drew nearer to the realm of Burkehardt, several changes could be easily seen. The halls grew broader and rougher, the sounds of industry faded and were replaced by a quietly persistent sound of whispers coming from the walls, and the lights dimmed. They soon arrived at what could only be the checkpoint leading to the commander's headquarters, staffed by two SHADOW troops holding slim swords that glittered with spectral glints, a silent chimaera that ,what little that could be seen of it, looked like a melding between a wolf and a crocodile with..more at various points, crouching nearby them, a retinal scanner on the wall next to a door labelled 'Elevator to South levels' behind the odd trio. All along the walls could be seen entryways into the vents, which emitted a smell like sweet poison.

One of the soldiers spoke ~"Chesney here. Groan, Burkehardt hasn't forgiven you yet for what happened to that last giant. He's placed some wards on the door to keep you from coming any closer. Sorry sir"~ she added glumly, holding out a hand palm-outwards ~"I must ask you to turn back. At once."~

[Tiffany Korta]

As they walked Blodeuwedd explained her question about magic.

<<â€Magical Traditions are a little like Martial Arts styles. They all have there different styles and techniques, there strengths and there weaknesses. They can also inform a person decisions making them interested, sometimes to extremes, in achieving or finding certain goals.â€>>

As if to illustrate this very point the guard was turning them away for what seemed a very Norse like mythic reason.

<<â€I have an idea. Just get ready whilst I try this just in case this doesn't work.â€>> she told Myrmidon through there private link.

“Of cause you’ve not been told.†Ignoring how strange her “new†voice sounded she put on the world weary tones of those who had to complete a job despite their betters. “It seems he know fears that these intruders are some kind of interference from Jötunheimr. We’ve been issued with these special weapons.†She gestured to the perfectly normal weapons they borrowed “And guard the giants in case they try anything.â€

[Ari]

GM

There was a baffled silence as the guard who had spoken mulled over this news. Jötunheimr was a little out of the purview of Burkehardt's studies, focused as he was on the more terrestrial realms. He had been a little close-mouthed about where he had gotten the giants from, however. Glancing at the other guard their comms buzzed on a frequency the helmets of the two heroes couldn't quite catch, following which Officer Chesney nodded, turning to 'Groan' and saying, if a little cautiously ~"Very well. Proceed on down. Just don't get mad at me if any of the wards flare up and send you clear across the Harrow"~ she added sharply, tapping a previously invisible button on the wall, at which the air shimmered before them ~"The code is the same as last week. Mind the floor at the lower stop, some of the blood spilled around there and it's enchanted enough that cleaning it up is a hazard all its own"~ she added as she stepped to one side, snapping the familiar SHADOW salute to the disguised Myrmidon and Blodeuwedd.

[Semi-Autogyro]

While Blodeuwedd was talking to the female clone, who he knew were created in an attempt to see if SHADOW could endow them with magic to make artificial Valkyries, he himself had an eye on the other clone and the chimera. He had checked the pilfered blaster pistol when he had acquired it from the real Officer Flay and now that he was sure that it was operational, was ready to use it if things went FUBAR. When they were granted elevator access, he once again was glad that his erstwhile brothers and sisters typically had the foresight and personal initiative of a cinder block.

But still something felt off, and he was rewarded with his rampant paranoia when a password was mentioned. One that they did not have and could not fake. Each base set their own passwords and though it amused the clone that this Burkehardts' security was lax not to change it everyday it still remained a problem. Myrmidon nodded in affirmation of the salute and followed Blodeuwedd into the elevator where he pressed the ornate button on the bottom. As soon as the door closed he talked to his companion. << Passwords are randomly chosen by the base commander from a computer generated list and typically changed daily. Getting past with any degree of subtlety might prove a significant challenge." >>

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd didn’t know why but she was pleasantly surprised by how successful her bluff worked. Sometime even she forgot that she had been trained to do this kind of thing, so long had she been playing the part of the warrior. Luckily there were other skill she still remembered having, those that would be most useful in these circumstances.

<<â€Luckily I have some skills with security systems of all types. If the system is too esoteric for my skills I have other resources to call upon. It might be necessary to set a secured communication link with the outside world though, if you’re capable of such a thing?â€>>