Beneath the Ice

[Aristotle Tater]

Arkania​

Outskirts of Adascopolis​

Underground NanoGen Facilities​

The Collective had been secretive, small, and quiet. It had existed and then.... simply hadn't. Barely a blip on the galactic radar.

That didn't mean, however, that they had done nothing.

Quite the opposite.

They had just never seen it come to fruition.

NanoGen was not associated directly with the Collective. It wasn't one of their private facilities. To an outside eye, there was no connection. Azimuth wasn't an outside eye. They looked a little deeper. Drew lines. Perhaps the Collective had been deeply entwined with the work NanoGen had been doing.... perhaps not. But someone had placed an order for certain tech that the medical company was developing. Someone hidden behind shell after shell until the trail went cold. Not a trace of it off planet, no connections beyond this local web to draw attention outward. Perhaps the Collective. Perhaps a player Azimuth was not yet aware of. From what they knew however?

It was technology that should never see the light of day.

It had not been difficult to get into the facility. It was not, after all, a military grade lab. Well. Not all of it.

She'd entered with the proper clearance. A security badge, the right face, a thumb print and everything.

The fact that it was an over lay from a dead woman whose body was still cooling in an alley several blocks over was irrelevant. She didn't like going in civilian digs, but some places it was just best. The needs of the mission and all that. It was a temporary aberration anyway. There was, after all, a rather large package that had been delivered to an office, just this morning. How had she known it wouldn't be opened before she got there?

The person it was addressed to was the same person dead in that alley.

Humming to herself, she headed toward the office. Time to suit up, and head into the part of the facility where it wouldn't be so easy.

Norte had no idea that someone else had the same idea.

[member="Hollow"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Norte"]

The perfect job had been surprisingly simple to plan.

NanoGen had tight security, they had thought of every angle, every trick, every ploy, but that had made sense. Their benefactors had once been an agency of subterfuge themselves, yes? But the Collective had been relying on... something that was no longer here. It had taken several slices over several days.

Compromise the system.

Let parts of it fold into one another. Then feed the intel straight into his helmet. From there he had slipped into the facility, moving in sync with what was happening.

Until the inner sanctum.

Shielded from the outside, it had no nodes until you reached the inside of the facility. Troubling. But not... impossible. "Almooost there." He hummed softly to himself. This corridor would be empty for.... four more minutes and ten seconds. Just enough time. Get this panel open, shortwire it.

Then the inner doors would open.

What could go wrong?

 

[Aristotle Tater]

NanoGen was understaffed these days. So many of their projects mothballed due to insufficient funds. Because the Collective had vanished? Possibly. It would make sense given what she knew. Not enough time to get on their feet without a steady trickle from there, but not enough to go under themselves. Focusing more on the projects that would keep them treading water, letting go of people who couldn't be helped. The facility was huge, but the number of people wandering around it in no way reflected that.

Just the way Norte liked it.

Emerging from the office, the armored form slipped down the hallway. She'd timed it with what she knew of the facility, between security rounds, third shift when things were even closer to a skeleton crew than usual. Sensors in the helmet whirring softly, it was easy to reach the center of the facility, where things got interesting, without interference.

Norte paused, kneeling. Head tilted slightly.

It was tiny- good tech. She almost didn't notice it. But the sweeper in the helmet had picked up the electronic ping that went out, the 'all clear' as it were. She waited- thirty second intervals. If someone was actively monitoring it they'd miss the ping. If it was a passive system, it might get missed. If she did nothing however, it would squeal out her location immediately.

Simple solution. A small emp pulse. Deactivated. Thirty second window if it was being monitored. If it wasn't? So much the better.

She assumed it was part of the internal security.

Wrong.

Norte continued down the hall- according to the layout she'd gotten her hands on, the access to the central lab was right ahead around the next corner. This time of night, no one should be there. Not going in anyway. There might be some night owls inside, but she wasn't incredibly concerned about that.

Rounding the corner, she almost went sprawling.

Right over a crouched figure.

[member="Hollow"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Norte"]

Hollow wasn't actively monitoring the pings.

Maybe he should have.

But in truth that would have been unfeasible. Why? This was sensitive work. Every wire. Every little node in there was hard-wired. One wrong movement and it would all blow up in his face. Not literally, of course, buuuut. Close enough. It was a good thing that Hollow was good at slicing.

It wasn't easy.

But one by one he was circumventing the security. Avoiding the tripwires in place. Disabling where necessary. Hollow could see the end goal already. Home stretch.

With two minutes to spare too, eat it, Zeph.

Just one..... more..... to-

BUMP.

Something walked into him and it shook his hand. That hand shook the instrument. The instrument shook the wire. The wire... send the alarm signal out within a micro-second. Boom. As they went down to the ground the alarms started to ring. Worse? Doors began to seal themselves.

"What the KARK."

Hollow and Norte almost immediately broke through the sprawl.

Two rolls on opposite sides, until his back was against the direction of the inner sanctum. Their barrels aimed against one another. There was a beat there.

Then-

"Hot Thread is three blocks to the south, Mask, you took a wrong turn."

 

[Aristotle Tater]

"I don't know, if your get up is anything to go by, I'd say I'm in the right place."

The voice was distorted by the mask, but there was no mistaking it for anything but feminine. The distortion wasn't that heavy. That wasn't the point.

Inwardly, Norte cursed. Prepare for anything. But most specifically, prepare to be caught off guard. She'd done the first, and forgotten the second. Who would have guessed someone else would be kneeling in front of the gorram door?

The lights flashed, alternating red, threatening migraines to those who deigned to ignore them. That and worse.

Her mind raced. He wasn't from NanoGen. Who did he work for? Not Azimuth, they wouldn't have sent in someone without looping her in. A third party- interested in the same thing or something else? Could she use him to her advantage? Too many questions, too many unknowns.

"Been awhile since someone took a knee to me. Got sweet nothings to promise or you gonna bow your head in penitent shame? Either way, move or I'll move you. Got a hot date and no time for this."

She had charges to get into the lab. But with the two of them drawn on each other, she needed him to get his gun out of her damned face.

[member="Hollow"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Norte"]

He was running out of time.

What to do?

Turn around and make a break for it? Shot in the back. Talk with her? Time running out. Kill her? Shift a bit to the left, take the blaster bolt to the shoulder. Efficiency lacking... but the decision was made. Just as it was though? The situation shifted for both of them. A guard rounded the corner and Hollow's arm shifted a fraction to the right.

Enough that the barrel wasn't aimed for her head.

Squeeze.

Blaster bolt went, but nobody saw it. Invisible and silent. There was still a gurgle behind her, before the guard flopped to the ground and stayed down.

"Neither sadly. I don't promise, I leave statement of intents," Eyeing the smoke coming off the corpse of the guard. "You can try to move me or you can stop wasting our times, tell me what you are after, then go our separate ways."

Or fight to the death, if their goals were the same.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

She saw the flicker of movement reflected in his visor. Tracked his shift of aim. Rather than jump into action herself she stayed still. Only shifting her side slightly to see the job was done right- not her back to him, just enough to check. It had been a good, clean shot. Taken in a glance.

His question.

Calculation.

Decision.

A heart beat.

"There's a bit of tech inside that would be dangerous to the galaxy at large," she said, words swift and blunt. "I'm here to destroy it and wipe the data from the system." Barring that, torch the place entirely.

One of the reasons to come this late. Lower body count. Oh, Norte didn't mind dropping bodies. But if she had a choice between a dozen and a hundred, all other things being equal, she'd go for the lower number.

"That enough for you?" There was a lilt of amusement.

She was ready at any moment, if he so much as flinched the wrong way, to open fire.

But she could see the same from him and if they did it would get messier than she wanted. She'd avoid a hole in her chest if she could today.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Norte"]

A beat of consideration.

Then.

The blaster lowered, before disappearing into his holster once more. "Plenty." Maybe if they had the same target, even remotely, he would have tried to put a blaster bolt in her. But he was here to destroy something else. So. There was no chance that their purposes were at crossroads today.

Didn't mean they wouldn't tomorrow.

Or the day after that.

Gesture to the set of doors separating them from the inner sanctum. "Ladies first." That wasn't a suggestion. While he had put down his blaster first, she would have the honors of going first.

Seemed like a fair trade.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

With the helmet, he couldn't see her face. Consideration. But then a nod.

Unlike him, Norte did not holster her blaster.

Partly because she knew there could still be folks inside (unlikely but possible) and partly because he was going to be at her back. Yeah no, keeping the gun out. The helmet offered a 360 HUD, but it wasn't the same as being face to face. If he went for his weapon without another threat available, she'd know and would be able to react.

Stepping up, the door swished open, all but silent compared to the blaring klaxons.

"Better at locks than alarms," she murmured, amusement in her voice.

They didn't have much time, however, and she bee-lined over to the console. Swiping the stolen card, she frowned.

"Kark," she muttered, trying it again. "System's frozen out- probably tripped by the alarms. Would take way too much time for me to- hey!"

He'd pushed past her and was already spreading fingers across the keyboard.

[member="Hollow"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Norte"]

A snort filtering through the comms.

"Haven't quite trained with special agents bumping into me." There was a moment of thought. Then. "Obvious oversight. Will bring it up with my handler."

It didn't take long to realize they were headed in the same direction. There were a host of corridors, but no guards for the moment. Both of them had seemingly studied the floor plan extensively, but Hollow wasn't concerned here. His own goal had been the destruction of this project as well. Finally she settled down behind a console and immediately showed she had no fething clue what she was doing.

"We don't have time for this."

Hollow mumbled as he clapped his gauntlets together.

Light started to radiate from his palms, the metal pieces slowly twisting until they formed smaller parts that could tick the buttons faster. "The faster we destroy Project Evergreen the better."

A pause, then.

"Took care of the creator already?" She had been missing from her apartment and her office.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

“You have a handler. Cute.”

Like it explained everything.

In truth, it told her quite a lot.

She leaned back, watching him go to work. Norte wasn’t a slicer- oh she could get around most standard security measures given enough time, but that wasn’t her forte.

“I was going to start setting charges to collapse the building but if you think you can get through that firewall before they figure out where we are, be my guest.”

Behind the visor, her eyes narrowed. She hadn’t told him exactly what she was here after. Just that it was dangerous. There were half a dozen other things in the system that, depending on your definition of it, could be considered dangerous. Of course, they all paled in comparison to Evergreen, so it wasn’t that far of a stretch, if he’d come in with similar intel to her own.

“Dead,” she confirmed, dangling the key card. The woman’s face reflected in the low light. “Won’t be making anything else like this for anyone.”

They were on the same track then. Good enough. Even if he was kind of a snarky ass.


[member="Hollow"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Norte"]

“You don’t? Business must be disappointing.”

The response was a bit absent, but still came promptly like it was already prepared. If Hollow was bothered by her opinion on handlers he didn’t show it. Truth to be told he believed they were essential.

Mission support was critical.

Otherwise you might as well just be a stray mercenary. “Unnecessary.” Hollow confirmed a moment after when the beep came through. The light turned green. A door to their left hissed open.

It was colder down there.

The lab temperature modulated for optimal magnetism. Superconductors, things like that. “Perfect, was concerned I’d have to spend my afternoon tracking her down after this.” That made it easier.

Their stride was fast and with purpose.
Suddenly Hollow froze.

His hand launched out to grab Norte’s and yank her back. Why? Because one step in front of her was a pressure zone that suddenly pinged in his sliced feed. Wouldn’t have popped up, if he hadn’t sliced into the systems a bit ago.

“That is new.”

Hollow mumbled as he studied the passage.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

[SIZE=11pt]“Perfect, was concerned I’d have to spend my afternoon tracking her down after this.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“You’ve got your strengths I’ve got mine.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]It was obvious that his skills with computers and slicing significantly outshone her own. She wasn’t ashamed to admit it. No single agent could have every single skill necessary at expert levels- no one was that good. He was a slicer. Norte? Was good at tracking things- and people- down. Sometimes just to talk. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Sometimes to leave a body. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]When he grabbed her and yanked her back, he almost saw first hand just what she was good at. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“What’s[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] new?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]With the armor on, the singing tension that had almost resulted in his [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]end [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]was all too easy to miss. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt][member="Hollow"][/SIZE]

 

[Arage Bao]

“They added a pressure plate to the whole.” Another pause. “Step onto the segment and the entire corridor blows up, yeah?”

Oh, Hollow knew the risk he had taken by yanking her back.

But in that moment it had either been: a) risk her fucking him up, b) get immolated by an explosion that would take out the entire corridor. One was sure death, the other owned some better odds in his opinion.

“Next tiles have anti-sensor coating…”

But why only those and not of the plate?

Hollow eyed the ceiling, the walls adjacent to the floor and made some rough calculations in his head. He hadn’t brought a jump-jet with him on this one. Packed light for a reason. It made him faster and more agile.

But maybe that wasn’t necessary.

“Not close enough to make the jump.” He activated his magnetic boots, feeling them locking into place with a satisfying thunk. “You got these?”

[member="Norte"]

 

[Aristotle Tater]

“Show me.”

Without his tap into the feed, she couldn’t see what he was seeing. He pointed them out, where the plate started and ended- the seam wasn’t subtle but she wanted to be sure it didn’t extend past that into the next. She eyed it for a second, then backed up.

He activated his mag boots, and was just turning to ask her if she did when the figure went sprinting past him.

Not close enough to make the jump?

Maybe for him.

Where his focus was clearly the cerebral, Norte was a little more physical.

She made the jump look easy. Landing on the other side, she took up the momentum by dropping to a knee for a moment, before pushing back up. Reaching over, she flicked up a panel- easy to miss- and pressed a key, deactivating the pressure plate.

“It’s here for someone inside to set up in case of outside attack- someone’s in there and activated it.” An educated guess, reasonable based on the information. “Have to have some way to turn it off when the threat’s passed, and it wouldn’t be slicable through main security this way.” Which also explained why he hadn’t picked it up. A backup, in case of people like him.

The facility wasn’t playing around.

[member="Hollow"]

 

[Arage Bao]

Blink blink blink.

Well, that was unexpected.

Hollow was silent for a moment after she disabled the security system of the floor. Then- “I’d clap, but something tells me encouraging you isn’t a good idea.” The dry mumble as he walked on over to her.

Even knowing that the plates were disabled didn’t stop Hollow from testing it out first. A careful foot was placed, pressing down just a bit. When nothing seemed to explode? Hollow followed Norte through the corridor.

Mulling her words for a bit.

“Might mean there are more security measures here.” Things that Hollow wouldn’t pick up before it was almost too late.

That was troubling.

Very.

“Nice job.” He mumbled over to her as they locked back into synced steps. He didn’t actually have a problem complimenting someone. When they did a good. “We have about four more corridors to clear. “

The next corridor opened up to them as the doors hissed open.

Long path forward.

It seemed to be empty for now, but Hollow had a bad feeling about it. Just couldn’t put his thumb on it.

[member="Norte"]

 

[Aristotle Tater]

Real question: If he hadn't had the magboots as a way over, would she had disabled the plates, or given him a cheery salute and left him behind?

Or worse. Told him she had.

Honestly, even Norte wasn't sure. Mostly because the point was moot and it was a series of angles she didn't have to consider. Save the effort for things that actually mattered.

But it was a question indeed.

"I'd take a bow but that wasn't even that impressive." There was a smirk beneath the helmet.

"Honestly, I'm surprised security hasn't made it down here yet," she said a moment later, as they rounded the corner. "Which is suspect and I don't trust it just to mean we get to play on easy mode."

It was incredibly suspicious, in fact. It meant that either security here was inept (which wasn't supported by any of the data or recon Norte had picked up going in), or else they expected whatever was down here to take care of-

This time it wasn't anything Hollow could have picked up with his sensors.

WHOAM

"Kark!"

With a zip, a fitz and then- nothing. Her entire HUD was dark. She blinked twice rapidly, but there was no response.

[member="Hollow"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Norte"]

This time Hollow was the one walking into her.

The sudden movement coupled with the WHOAM took him completely by surprise. Twice in one mission. That wasn't a good number, Zeph was gonna have his hide for this. The blinking didn't help, neither did the squeeze of his jaw against the artificial regulators integrated in the internal lining. It was a good thing his helmet had a transparisteel visor. Or he would have been rightly karked in the back by this.

Nothing worked.

He felt sluggish too.

The suit wasn't full powered armor, but there had been some light optimization. "Diagnostics." Nothing. "Reboot." Still nothing. "Ugh. Worth a try." There was a low hum at the back of his head. The internal capacitors rewinding.

That was good. Meant it wasn't fried permanently.

"Fact that t-" Suddenly something started hissing next to them. It was coming from the walls. Hollow looked to the side. The walls seemed as in-animated as before. He was about to say something, until the door in front of them locked down. Hermetically sealed. "Uh oh." Something told him that might be the worst sign out there. "You said something about explosives?" Hopefully it wasn't attached to her gear like his slicing equipment.

Integration sounded like such a good idea last week.

His voice sounded different now.

Less commanding, muffled, now that the audio feedback had been shut off as well.

 

[Aristotle Tater]

Norte wasn't sure if she heard the hiss or was imagining things. There was no actual sign in the hallway that anything had changed, but there were a staggeringly small number of answers for what was to happen next. The armor was sealed- when it was working. But part of the safety was that she had three minutes before it unsealed on it's own if the power couldn't kick back on, a fail safe so she wouldn't suffocate if she got hit with something that completely fried it. Three minutes of clean air before she either had to remove the helmet or it unsealed itself anyway. Just in case she was unconscious and couldn't remove the helmet. Only in this case she'd end up that way if they didn't get moving in less than that amount of time.

By now Norte had realized they weren't going to have to contend with the warm bodies of security. No, the internal defenses were deliberately lethal and cast a wide net. Surely one person couldn't have everything they needed to get through the gauntlet.

Fortunately, they were two.

Her own voice had the same muffled quality, but she moved with the same swiftness and surety she had before. That was all her, and not from power ups in the armor.

"Always. Mechanisms are shielded too-" she was unclipping something from the belt and flicked- "What the hell."

Whatever they had used wasn't a standard EMP. Something related to the nanotechnology work? Very possible. A chill passed through her. In three minutes, when her suit unsealed, would it be a normal gas filling the hallway? Or something far worse?

There were worse things in their arsenal.

One of them was Project Evergreen.

Chit.

She pulled out a small hand tool, kneeling by the sealed door and getting to work. Just because the firing mechanism was fried didn't mean the explosives were useless. Not even close. Just meant that she had to set them manually. That took longer. It would be quicker if she removed a glove but the idea of whatever was in the air out there? No thank you.

"How long till your suit reboots or runs out of air?" She made an assumption that he wasn't already breathing it in because she had to.

[member="Hollow"]