Turn 17C
MAP:
Yuuji finally comes to his senses and looks around, realizing only a little too late that his comrades have left the vicinity. He has only a vague idea of where they went as well - after taking the first corridor, they could have gone anywhere. Fortunately, he has an idea of how to fix this.
Taking out his PDA, he brings up the map. As expected, the PDA mapped out the area that he had traveled to reach this point of the gang's base, but not the location of his allies. However - and this is a game-changer - Tartarus Inc. PDAs (as has been stated previously) are able to communicate to each other and triangulate their relative positions if in fairly close proximity for a significant amount of time. Yuuji can see Brom and Buck's locations on the map - and they're quite far off, and down a number of levels.
Realizing he's going to have to play it by ear, he pockets his PDA and begins a long, cautious, meandering descent through the complex, hoping to find the other members of his fireteam...
~~~
With the dude lying dead on the floor for the maid to clean up, Vynk and Suki sort out the gear. Sukava's taking this vest (which is a
really tight fit), as well as the knife, grenade, and assault rifle + ammo. Vynkor is taking the plasma pistol and the semiauto pistol.
After turning off their radios, so as not to blow their cover if they receive a transmission, they sneak ahead through the shadows, getting close enough to watch - and at this point, they can clearly make out that Beta is sitting there on the couch.
~~~
Brom and Buck are freaking out... very quietly.
"Was I smokin' somethin' strong,
or did I just hear the fuckin' robo-lady?!"
"I heard it too," Brom confirms reluctantly.
Buck sounds half-mad, like he's about to start cackling from the sheer insanity of it all. "Fukcin'
BETA is here. Why? How?! I hate this shithole!"
Brom agrees. "This is
really bad timing on their part!"
"Now, lemme guess, we need to figure out a way to get them out o' this crap - n' that's just the usual business - but also not piss this Feb asshole off??"
"Unfortunately for them, we don't have much of a choice here. If we're called to fight, we have to fight."
Buck sighs, shaking his head. "Any bright ideas?"
His teammate thinks for a moment. "Before we go in, I'll announce our presence. Pray to the FSM they know enough about your loadout to have the good sense to flee before you fire."
"Yeah, yeah," Buck mutters with a grin. "Won't pretend shootin' at Beta won't be fun, though."
"Oh - and let me take the first shot", Brom adds on quickly. "If I can take out Kinorvan, we may not have to fight them at all."
~~~
Beta watches quietly, alternating between cursing the station and Daneelo's lack of information. While bewildered by the sudden change in the circumstances of their little trade, they're quite glad they hadn't authorized Kinorvan's use of the spider - that could've ended badly, seeing as the Minas Maniri are apparently dealing with an unsettling amount of internal politics. More than half the people in the room seem to follow Kinorvan, but the new guy - Keshor - seems to be older, and a lot more in control of both himself and the situation. More importantly, perhaps, he seems to intuitively know that they aren't
actually FMU.
"Spider?" Nilo whispers to the others.
Frank nods quietly, hoping nobody else heard or understood.
Kinorvan adjusts his grip on his pistol. "You didn't have to kill him. Ses was a good kid."
"He was high off his ass on black flake while he was
supposed to be on guard duty! He brought these guys in -" here Keshor growls, gesturing at the REKT crew "- without even checking them for weapons!"
Kinorvan gestures at the crates. "Look around,
kikof, or are you blind? The dust gets everywhere, and there's enough black flake in this room to kill an entire herd of
tican maaqan*!"
"If you can't keep your own
guards away from the stuff, then you really can't lead worth shit, Kinorvan."
Kinorvan laughs. "What, and killing people makes
you a good leader?"
"
LEADING makes you a good leader! Routine! Order! Discipline! But you've
never gotten that part right!"
The younger fysar shakes his head. Despite his best efforts, it's obvious he's nervous. "What does it matter if the kid was a little high? I say let them have their fun. As long as they get the job done, who cares?"
"EXCEPT THE JOB ISN'T FUKCING DONE!" Keshor roars. "Open your fukcing eyes and
actually look at them, you
kap'shik kalaki! You see that pack on her back, all the wires going into her head? What the
fukc do you think that is, if not a PSI weapon? Are you
actually telling me these
pen'dekos look like FMU to you??"
"They're from the Lavloxeri division - they're plainclothes. They're not supposed to be in uniform."
At this point, Caleb takes the opportunity to speak up, addressing Keshor. "Okay, just who are you, and what the fukc is going on? We
ARE from the FMU. They sent us to get Adopan after Beckstein got killed the other day, and we're
supposed to be meeting the leader of the Minas Maniri!"
Keshor's dark, beady eyes widen, his mouth contorting in a perfect expression of flabbergasted incredulity, apparently at Caleb's audacity. "'Killed the other day'? I fukcing talked to Beckstein this morning,
kansha. If you came from FMU, you should
know that the leader of the Minas Maniri is Febivo Keshor Mikiikah!"
A fysar voice speaks up hesitantly from across the room. "I follow Kinorvan!" There's a muttering of agreement - equally hesitant and uncertain. Kinorvan has looked exceptionally stupid in this argument so far, and everyone knows it.
"More than half of the Minas Maniri follow me, Keshor," Kinorvan states quietly, with cool confidence. "Your methods are old and crude. You're obsolete now. You just don't have the guts to face it. Everything you do is an act - you'd rather be offworld on a fancy ship than here with us."
Febivo declines to respond, and instead turns to the squid that entered with him, jerking his head in the inmates' direction. "Farelo, scan them."
"DON'T move, Farelo," Kinorvan interrupts; the squid halts mid-step. "If you so much as move a tentacle, I'll shoot Keshor. He's just trying to create a distraction."
"I'm TRYING to FIND OUT IF THEY'RE BUGGED!" Feb shouts, becoming ever more agitated. "Farelo, SCAN THEM! That's an order! If Kinorvan shoots me, he'll be dead in an instant and he knows it!"
"Yes sir." The hiltorel quickly and carefully traces a path around the outside of the little standoff. When he gets close to the inmates, he pulls out a device and holds it out in front of him, watching the readout carefully.
Beta's squad members wonder if they ought to protest... but then, they don't have anything to hide.
But that's where they're wrong. After a moment, the device begins beeping. In the span of an eyeblink, Farelo darts forwards with incredible agility. Frank jerks back in surprise, but Farelo is far quicker: he's already retrieved a small electrical device out of a pouch on Frank's upper leg. He holds it up to the light, examining it for a moment, and then tosses it to Keshor, who catches it effortlessly and examines it with a practiced eye. "They're bugged, Feb - every one of them."
Bugged? But how? Who could have planted bugs on them? The four inmates glance at each other, confused - and suddenly the realization hits them:
The only time it could've happened was as they were being patted down as they entered Daneelo's place.
Feb's face twists with rage. "
HONAL! MIKAAN!" With these two words, half the weapons in the room (in both camps) are suddenly pointed at the REKT squad sitting on the sofa - who leap to their feet, weapons free: Nilo with his lash, Caleb with his pistol, and Frank with his ... darts. Saoirse waves her hands around but doesn't look like she's actually armed.
But Febivo isn't done. "You thought we wouldn't grep the bugs on you, eh? You're not FMU! Who the
FUKC are you working for??"
The four inmates get the strong feeling that as soon as they answer, their lives will be forfeit. There's no backing out of it at this point: Whether they wanted a fight or not, it seems to have found them.
~~~
Yuuji, after traversing the complicated labyrinthine structure through various staircases and hallways, has arrived at one of the entrances to the room just in time to hear the tail end of the conversation. From where he's standing, he can clearly see Beta, weapons out - and a shitload of alien troops. He doesn't actually
know it's Beta, though. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that both Saoirse and Nilo are wearing PSI packs, Yuuji wouldn't have any idea they were REKT members at all - but he at least strongly suspects that they are.
~~~
Brom, peeking out of cover and into the room, sees that Kinorvan has unwittingly circled his way even closer: he's right next to the open doorway. While this goes well with his plan to shoot Kinorvan, it's debatable how much good killing Kinorvan will actually do at this point - especially seeing how everyone seems to want to kill Beta now.
*
(("Tican maaqan" (or just "maaqan") are aquatic animals hailing from Hsilkori, the hiltorel homeworld. There are still a good number of them in existence, scattered across the galaxy. They're known for their large size, and are a bit like bioluminescent whales with tentacles. Also, terrestrial whales are extinct. So are elephants. But that's a topic for another time.))