Nerrone's Rangers IC

Before Quark had a chance to hop onto the console, Xol jumped forward and began furiously typing away. He brought up the operating mainframe and attempted to begin planting a few homing worms, designed to bypass any security code or password and start digging through the computer's hard-drive.. He assigned the terms _TURRETCONTROL_ and _SHUTDOWN_ to them, in hopes that they would discover their respective processes and activate them.

Grecsh on the other hand attempted to solve the issue with a quick toss of a grenade in the turret's general direction.

Surprised, confused, and a bit angry at the interruption of Xol, Quark began working hard on shutting down the turret. He knew he couldn't get angry at Xol when he was only trying to help. He followed Xol's work on a different screen, keeping up and helping to shut down eat bit of the programming, attempting to turn it off for good.

Kwa raised her voice over the comms: "Dagon, get your wretched behind over here. Flank is down, we require fire support and meds stat." The transmission was interrupted by more gunfire as Kwa added a few shots from her pistol to the tally, before ducking back into cover outside the doorway.

Dagon darted a sideways glance at Grey as the message came through, but complied nonetheless — he would have to trust that this newcomer was telling the truth, or at the very least that Cuna was able to handle the situation herself.

He swiftly exited the Lacuna; after a moment's squinting around at the remains of the square and surrounding lawns, he located the ETR Flank had dropped during the fight earlier. It still weighed a tonne in his hands. Now burdened with his precious cargo, he started making his way, more slowly now, towards the entrance.

"Got some meds for Flank here," Dagon said into his comlink, his breathing audibly heavy. He still had no idea if it was possible to get past the turret while carrying the ETR, and make it to Flank before it was too late. He wondered if, perhaps, he had not thought this through properly.


In the security booth, after their combined efforts breached the network's outer security layer, Quark and Xol quickly found that the turret's features were divided into a handful of distinct areas, each of which was protected separately:
—Essential Systems (sub-divided into Mobility, Targeting and Power Supply).
—The Identify-Friend-Foe (IFF) software. This appeared to have already been heavily tampered with: from the mangled segments of code it appeared that it had been re-written to register all entities but those with a very specific bio-signature as hostile — further investigation would be needed to acquire more information.
—Alert Level. Currently, this was set to "CODE_Psi_23". There must be be a pattern to these codes, though without any of the others on hand as an example "Psi_23" was all they had to go on.


Meanwhile, Grecsh's grenade arced upwards towards the turret on the ceiling... and then arced back down again, as grenades are known to do, landing on the other side of the foyer and tearing chunks of plaster from the far wall as it detonated. The turret turned and sent a large yellow bolt flying at Grecsh, who was currently the most exposed target. So far, the Rangers' blaster bolts had either missed or failed to do more than superficial damage, though the unit's plating was dented and scorched in a couple of places.

Rhak cursed as the plasma bolts rolled over the ground. He didn't have time for this. Insted he drew his pistol and unsecured it. A faint clikc was heard.
Rhak popped out and took shot at it. The recoil spread through his arm, jerking it back.
He ducked again, noticing the small breaths of the Ravis.
Rhak had thought Flank was dead, and hadn't checked his pulse. He now did, and acted fast as the pulse weakend.

(I'm really sorry for not posting anything in ages. ^^' I'll try my best to write something decent but it will be short.)
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(Bianca) "Well this is just fantastic.", Bianca mumbled. She ran over where Flank is and crouched down. She quickly searched for anything in her pockects that might just save Flank from the brink of death. As Bianca did so, the Ravis is slowly breathing in and out at a snail's pace. "You are not gonna die on us. Not when things are already this bad!"

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(I would post what Chalen did but erm I forgot what the strike team is up to. I'll be sure to edit this bit if someone told me. ^^')

While the others fussed over him, a new sensation entered Flank's dazed mind. It wasn't fear, anger, sadness or anxiety; they were already there. What Flank felt was peace.

No, he didn't want to die, but he had reached a stage in his life where he could come to terms with it. He still feared death, he was still angry that a ceiling-mounted turret had conquered him, he was still upset that his life was cut so short; at 34 Ravis years, and he was still anxious about what lay beyond. But he could accept it.

Although one thought was racing around his head:

I don't want to die.

Time was running out and in frustration, Bianca stopped searching about in her pockets and did the only thing she could do. She quickly and calmly began to take out the shards from Flank's chest. They had implaed deeply but with each pluck they hadn't cause further harm. Bianca's fingures are coverd in tiny red cuts thanks to the shards but she still kept at it. "I'm just glad Chalen's not seeing me in this dilemma. Though I do wonder..ouch!" Bianca caused another small red cut to one of her fingers. "Murr..that's what I get for letting my mind wonder."

Seeing their options on the computer screen, Xol formulated an idea and said to Quark, "Work on taking down or even controlling the three items under "Essential Systems". I'll take care of the other two categories.

The first thing Xol did was quarantine and extract the IFF software, essentially leaving the turret without a sure-fire idea of what was an acceptable threat. Clearing a nearby data pad of its contents, he quickly programmed a simple operating system and inserted the IFF into it. From there, he inserted an algorithm carried by the Zeafly titled "_INVERT_", designed to completely reverse a program to do the opposite of what it was programmed for. Since the IFF was programmed to ignore only a specific bio-signature, Xol figured that "_INVERT_" would turn that around, and make it so it would only lock on to that same specific bio-signature.

Finishing the programming, Xol made a copy of the new IFF software and inserted it back into the computer terminal, as well as keep an extra copy on the data pad, which he stuffed into his backpack.

He waited, hoping that the IFF would reintegrate itself with the console and stop the turret.


Grecsh, on the other hand, took cover behind a large metal crate, but not before getting hit by one shot from the turret, which his shield absorbed.

((Hopefully this is understandable for everyone. Basically, Xol made a duplicate IFF, inverted its purpose, and then reinserted it into the terminal.))

Joining Kwa in cover by the entrance, Dagon hefted the ETR in both hands and listened as the latest blast from the turret embedded itself in the floor of the foyer. Seconds passed in silence. From somewhere in the distance, the sound of another explosion reached them, as Santa Frerraro took another hit from the Kingdom's strike cruiser. Kwa leaned out of cover and surveyed the interior.

The gun had fallen still. For now.

Dagon wasted no more time: weighed down by the unassuming block in his hands, he rushed across the room to where Flank lay.

"Gangway guys! Someone prop his hand up on this thing quick — I don't like the way that gun turret's looking at me."


In the command hub at the top of the building, a dark figure worked frantically at a keyboard in the center of the room. The enemy was inside now. Time was at a premium.

To the right, another monitor blinked on of its own accord, flashing warning messages and computer code desperately at him as Xol's modified IFF came into play. The figure paused, torn between the task at hand and the breach in the security booth, then shifted his chair over and began deploying his own defensive measures...

Behind Xol and Quark there was a loud *click* as the door locked remotely. Following this, barely audible above the buzz of computers in the room, came a faint hissing from a small vent in the ceiling.

((Had this typed up already))

Flank was surrounded by darkness. He lay on what he thought was the ground, but given that there was nothing around him to see, he may well have been floating. The silence was deafening.
He tried to look at himself, and found no difficulty, despite the absence of any light. The parts of his body that were stained red from his metallic implants were once again blue, and little further investigation led him to realise that the implants themselves were gone too. His body was naked, completely natural, as if he had just been born.

There was something in front of him, some distance away: a shapeless figure. It almost completely blended into the darkness around it. It began to move toward Flank. He backed away, but it didn't have any effect on the distance between him and it, nor did the action generate any sound. It was as if they were attached a rope; a shortening rope, at that. He continued to back away. He flapped his wings at it, trying to slow it down, but it felt as if there was no air. The figure picked up speed, and hefted something, and the sound of fabric rubbing against fabric echoed deafeningly throughout the endless void. It caught the light in part — a light that simply was not there — revealing that the figure's tool was in part a curved, sharp looking piece of metal.

Flank began to back away with all the speed he could muster, still without making a sound, but then it occurred to him that he wasn't moving at all. He stopped. The figure stood above him, and then did its full form become visible to Flank: it was man-sized, and cloaked heavily in a strange, black fabric. The head was covered in a hood, concealing its face. In fact, no part of its body could be seen. It raised its tool again and prepared to strike at Flank, when it abruptly stopped, and shuddered as if it had been shocked.

Flank's hand was tingling; a painful itch that spread up his arm and over his whole body. He glanced at it, but noticed nothing unusual about it, and looked back up. The figure had lowered its tool, and extended a cloaked arm out at him, pointing. It jutted its head forward a bit and tilted it back, giving the notion that it was opening its mouth. It was from this mouth that it uttered the most terrifying sound Flank had ever heard, shattering the silence that had once prevailed all around them.

It was as if thousands of voices were concealed behind that cloak. Every single one of them was distinct, and they all shrieked and wailed in outrage and fury, all the same cry but amplified by numbers. The utterance pervaded the deepest parts of Flank's mind, tearing around through his psyche. Then, the figure began to fade away into the darkness, and the voice disappeared in the same fashion. The blackness that surrounded Flank turned to shapeless white, and then he too disappeared from the nameless place.

Meanwhile, while the blinding light from the ETR faded away and Bianca pulled away another large shard of glass from Flank's chest, he startled the rangers around him by abruptly drawing a huge breath, sucking in the air like a vacuum, before his breathing regulated once again. Due to the effects of the ETR, the smaller shards of computer were pushed out of his flesh, Bianca having pulled the larger, more dangerous shards out beforehand. The wood chips that stuck out of his right side like so many rough darts all just popped out of the skin, having only penetrated his skin by less than a centimetre.

Flank's natural senses returned all at once, confusing him, while the digital input from his chest lens and cannon scope began to flicker and adjust to the light. Slowly, Flank lifted his head.

Rhak had already abandoned the Ravis as soon as he had seen Dagon with the ETR.
The turret seemed to have stopped, or atleast wasn't shooting towards Rhak. So he ran towards the security booth, which Rhak had seen been closed off. He had drawn the conclusion that nothing good could come of it.
So now he tried to kick the door. He turned towards the O'onthos.
"Gresch! Hand me some explosives, quickly!"
_______________
The Zeenor smoked the cigarette, its ashes falling down in rythm of the shots from the cruiser. He watched it in a enerving calm manner, as if watching fire works a clear night.
He sat in a chair of an open plaza. His eyes were fixed on the visible top of Sapphire Point.
A brutish looking Acheen, his armor covered with heavy plating, but with no visible weapon turned towards the Zeenor.
"Eh... Sir? We should evacuate."
"Relax." Aleon said, with his cigarette between his fingers. "I have confident in the Rangers. After all, they're the 'Nerrones' Rangers."
He drew a breath from the cigarette, watching the blue smoke trail towards the looming cruiser.

Rhak's brute force alone was not going to have any effect on the door to the security booth: It was thick, and made mostly of some sort of transparent plexiglass-like material. Given the relative importance of the room beyond, the door was likely made to stand up to even the most determined of kickings.

The room itself was well-lit and relatively small: several paces long and wide, with just enough headroom for someone to give themselves a mild concussion by jumping straight up. Set into the wall opposite the entrance was a large set of windows, likely made from the same material as the door (and, incidentally, most of the wall the door was set into), looking out over the landing pad and the city beyond.

The remaining walls were unremarkable, painted white and hosted a cohort of shelves and filing cabinets: computer stacks, extra monitors and other sundry electronics sat in neat rows, all disabled, with cables and cords hanging over everything like some kind of exotic vine made of black rubber. The cabinets looked simple and businesslike, probably used to store hard copies of reports and paperwork — all were locked and apparently unmarked.

The desk that Xol and Quark were working at was a simple, metal affair running the length of the wall with the windows; it had space, seating and terminals set up for four people. The desk, as well as hosting the usual assortment of papers, office stationary and novelty mugs ("You don't have to be a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal to work here, but it helps!!"), also contained a set of drawers, once again locked and unmarked.

((Lazer, Drago, this is where I start putting pressure on you to post if things start to slow down. ))

((Fine, I'll make a small post))

When Quark had hacked past security protocols, he heard his orders. The door had opened, but he had to gain control over the essential systems. He broke down programs until he could unlock the first of the 3 systems. He added in commands that could give them access, and deleting the ones that could be used against them. He recompiled everything and locked it with "_COMPILE:PROTOCOL%6%_" and other little commands he'd created through the flashdrives that were uploading the data and inserting an array of viruses. He did this several more times until all the essential systems were taken over. "Xol, I have control over the essentials!" Quark exclaimed, as three windows popped up, giving total access to the essential systems.

Xol turned his attention to what Quark was pointing out to him, satisfied now that they had near-complete control over the turret. "Make a systems link between that and whataver mobile device you've got on hand. You never know when something like that will come in handy."

In the lull that struck them both, Xol became aware of two things. 1. The air pressure of the room had changed slightly, as though a seal had been made on the door. And 2. He could smell a strange odor coming from the ceiling.

These two facts sent his mind racing. He warned Quark, "Gas!" before closing his mouth and nostrals. He saw Rhak standing outside the door, looking desperate to get it open. Inserting yet another worm into the terminal, Xol programed it for "_DOORLOCAL_", a commonly used process in most systems using the Hexideim language.

"...Ghuh!..."
Flank's head dropped back down to the floor, a powerful headache brewing and threatening to concuss him. The headache in question was the result of all his senses returning at the same time, a sensation in itself that was difficult to cope with at best.

He felt deeply disturbed. The peace of mind that was usually the foundation of his other thoughts was warped and twisted, reminiscent of the way he was jumped by one of the insectoids of Las Thaddas, so many weeks ago. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep for a few nights.

"Alright..." he groaned, "time to get up."
En route to an upright sitting position, he bumped into Bianca, causing him to shuffle backwards and stutter nervously.
"I- I... well... Thank you."
He turned away and aimed up at the turret. It had stopped firing, so Flank thought it was as good a time as ever to return fire. He took careful aim at the firing mechanism at its front and fired. His cannon's only reply was a sharp click.

"What?!" he protested, "I have ammo!" He started looking around for it, and found it scattered on the floor amongst the wood chips and shredded computer.
"What's it doing on the floor?"

Quark's hacking had moved along fast, but he and Xol were no longer the only ones manipulating the system: their opponent in the command hub had begun isolating them from the rest of the network piece by piece, starting with elements of the foyer turret's programming. The multiple alterations that had been made to the IFF were slowing down the reprogramming process, but Xol could easily see his new IFF was not going to be around for much longer without his intervention.

The essential systems were also being hit at an alarming rate, and Quark would only have time to affect one of the three parts before being locked out.

Xol's attempt to open the door electronically, meanwhile, met with poor response: "ERROR: UNABLE TO EXECUTE UNDER ISOLATION PROTOCOL 5739.1.2. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER." Clearly the lockdown was designed not to be overridden from the inside, and it would take quite some effort to work around, if they chose to pursue this angle. They still had not yet used their terminals to seek out any information on the facility.

Both Quark and Xol would have to use their time carefully, however, as the room was continuing to fill with gas — a sharp, bitter smell was clearly distinguishable in the air.

Rhak took a few steps back and raised his pistol. And fired.
The recoil hit like a punch through the arm, as the pistol sent high-velocity slugs at the door.
Rhak emptied his clip of total 13 rounds and inspected the door.

Though the frame, hinges and lock appeared unaffected, where Rhak's shots hit the transparent material in the door some managed to melt small, clean holes straight through it.

On the one hand, these holes served to release at least some of the gas being pumped through the vent in the ceiling, giving Quark and Xol a little more time before they were overwhelmed by the fumes. On the other, several shots held onto enough momentum to carry straight on through: on the shelves inside the security booth, several devices and monitors burst into blinding sparks as Rhak's attack ruptured their electronics, and a few of his blasts endangered Xol and Quark themselves.


In the foyer, Dagon turned to Rhak, as Kwa cautiously emerged from the doorway several meters behind them, eyes fixed on the dormant turret.

"No idea," he said, "But if I were you, I'd just be happy it wasn't bits of my face!"

"You really do like running headlong into these things, don't you?" Kwa added, tilting her head quizzically.

"There." said Flank, after pushing the last plasma bolt back into his cannon's hand-loaded clip. With shaky legs he got onto his feet and stood up. He took aim at the turret again, but this time he made sure to aim at the hinge that kept it attached to the roof.

Through his scope he saw the ceiling-mounted gun in all its detail, save for the parts obscured by the intricate cross-hair. He had a little idea while he collected his ammunition, and so wanted to keep the firing module intact. He took up a strong stance and fired.

Dark_potato57 wrote:

"...Ghuh!..."
Flank's head dropped back down to the floor, a powerful headache brewing and threatening to concuss him. The headache in question was the result of all his senses returning at the same time, a sensation in itself that was difficult to cope with at best.

He felt deeply disturbed. The peace of mind that was usually the foundation of his other thoughts was warped and twisted, reminiscent of the way he was jumped by one of the insectoids of Las Thaddas, so many weeks ago. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep for a few nights.

"Alright..." he groaned, "time to get up."
En route to an upright sitting position, he bumped into Bianca, causing him to shuffle backwards and stutter nervously.
"I- I... well... Thank you."

(Just wanted to make one of those your welcome posts ^^')

Bianca tried not to laugh when the poor Ravis stuttered his sentence whilst shuffling backwards although a question popped into her head. Why is he always like this when he's near her or any other females? Bianca decided not to ask that as it would just make Flank more nervous then ever possibly enabling him to fight. Instead, Bianca simply responded:"Don't sweat it. Try not to get yourself in that state again from turret attacks in future." As Flank went off to find ammo, she wondered how her friend Chalen is holding up.

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(Chalen) "Well this is sure going swell me thinks *sighs*."

Rhak grunted. The bullets had no effect on the door.
He couldn't kick it up and he couldn't shoot it, as it would endanger Quark and Xol. At least he had bought them some time.
He cursed. This bunch were followed by bad luck.

Quark knew the scent. Gasses, poisoned, terrible gasses. Memories flashed in Quarks head, but only for a moment. He collected himself and realized what he needed to do. A few electrical sparks spewed up, endangering Quark and Xol. There where a few shots fired. Xol and Quark worked fast. Quark transferred all the data he got into a secure network and uploaded the data. After a bit of this and that, he had all the controls available to control from wireless devises. Then he realized they where still trapped in a room filling with gas. Panicked again, Quark shouted out:
"I have essential system controls! WHAT NOW!?" The gas was filling the room fast now.

"Reboot the environmental systems!" shouted Bor, who was close enough to see what was happening inside the security booth.

"Reboot the environmental systems! That'll shut down the gas and start to circulate oxygen into the booth!"

Xol switched to another console, still holding his breath. Working with the information the Lynski had provided, Xol typed away furiously on the keyboard and located some network global settings entitled "ENVSET_3". He located "ENVSET_2" and "ENVSET_1", overriding all three to what he assumed would be normal settings. The gas was beginning to effect his judgmental skills; he could care less about any consequences his actions would produce.

Throughout Sapphire Point Xol's new settings quickly came into effect, and the climate control system turned itself on. In a few minutes, the whole building would be pleasantly warm. Everyone in the security booth, however, would also be pleasantly dead.

Apparently whatever was pumping gas into the room was not part of the internal network, it had been left behind by whoever had attacked Sapphire Point. It was also clear that this trap was very localised — there was now warm air coming from the same overhead vent that was dumping gas into the room, but the flow of the gas itself was unaffected, and the extra airflow was not going to be nearly enough to dilute the poison.


((EDIT)) The turret, meanwhile, took a total of three precise shots from Flank's weapon to dislodge it from the ceiling completely: it descended in a cascade of sparks as the power cable severed and the gun's cradle came loose. The sound it made hitting the smooth floor of the foyer rivaled the FLAK cannon in volume, and the turret left sizable cracks where it landed. Needless to say, this was not a weapon designed to be carried by one person.