Exodus: Beyond Eden Chapter 2: The Complex [IC]

[Sutoratosu]

The early dawn hours of the next day... outside of Eden

"I will give this damn lecture one last time before we enter beyond the gates!" Jace shouted over the din of questions and conversation that had arrisen from the last bout of briefing a moment ago, helmet in the crux of his arm as he paced back and forth before the assembled them as they all waited infront of the massive stone entry way to Eden's garden, and by extension the giant gates within them. The entire membership of Chimera 17 stopped their gossiping at the sight of his growing rage, all of them shutting their mouths and standing at attention, save for the Blast Trooper, Arietta, whom was reported as missing late last night and presumed dead... not like any resources could be spared to go hunt down a woman who obviously should've never been on this mission anyway though.

"Try to pay attention this time! This," He gestured to a young woman who stood beside Commander Stone nearby, her helmet off and an Exo Pack on her back. "Is Gen Stone, yes, I know what you're thinking, she is Commander Stone's younger sister, get over it. Her survival will be imperative to this mission's success; she's the brightest mind in the fields of Disease control, Genetics, and overall Biological Science that Esperanza has, her IQ is so high, she'd be able to run circles around any of you intellectually. We have no idea what form the Cure may come in, it may be an actual manufactured product waiting for us to just swoop in, recover, and mass produce, or it may be a plant which needs to have certain components of it's biology extracted..." He looked at her as went on, his gaze rather cold, harsh even... "It may be nothing more than a blue print, a vague set of instructions or clues... or at the very worst..." he paused, seeming to ponder how to phrase the next part without giving away too much of anything...

"It won't exist at all." Quiet finished bluntly for him, not giving a damn whether or not any of the others were intelligent enough to glean any truth out of that nugget. "And we'll have all wasted our lives and the mission will be an absolute failure; everyone in Esperanza dies..." He put extra emphasis on the Everyone and Dies part especially, glaring at Jace from behind his shades and shawl. "Of course, that's just worse case scenario... why wouldn't the individuals who built all this just have a spare cure to their weaponized virus lying around? Seems logical to me..."

"The sarcasm is duelly noted, Mr. Quiet..." Jace snarled. "Now kindly shut that hole in your face, or I'll do you a favor and sew it up."

"Whatever you say...sir." Even thicker sarcasm in that answer, though Jace ignored it.

"Now, Dr. Stone herself will brief you on what we're looking for beyond the gates, and how we will go about...finding it."

He took a step back to stand beside Commander Stone and the young woman took a step up, giving an acknowledging glance to each soldier assembled before her.

"Thank you for the introduction, Major Bane," she began, glancing at him over her shoulder. "But technically I'm not a Doctor. Moving on," she returned her sights on the group. "To sit here and tell all of you that we know exactly what we're looking for would be a bull faced lie. The virus has adapted and side stepped every single thing we've thought to throw at it; the adaptability factor is beyond anything the human race has ever seen... something suggesting that it's the product of explicit and intelligent design. Not too hard to imagine, given the structure behind us all. What we've managed to determine from failed trial after trial though, is that it has to have some type of shut off device, an kill code, if you will, a certain sequence of genetic keys which when introduced will nullify and or kill the Virus and stop it in it's tracks-"

"That's all great and everything," Quiet interjected. "but why don't you actually tell them how they're supposed to find this "cure" you think exists?"

"I've got the needle and thread ready to go, Quiet." Bane said, getting very, very tired of this shit... "My offer earlier still stands."

There was no further discussion. Gen carried on where she'd been cut off. "To answer your question, it's actually a very good one, the key lies in the computer systems. How many Hackers are here with us?" even as she asked she was looking right at Sarah though...

[Rosesong]

Sarah, who had been daydreaming nonstop about finding her parents since they'd gotten to camp, shook her head and looked at Gen? "Hackers? That would be me!" she chirped, oblivious to what had been going on prior. "I just computer work, it's just so much fun." The girl looked around. "Everyone should cheer up! We made it here, we're alive, and we're on our way to finding a cure! There's no need to worry!"

[Sutoratosu]

There seemed to be nothing but dead silence from the others at that attempt to cheer them up. Quiet shook his head, sighing as the moment dragged on longer and longer. "Can we stop wasting time with small talk?" He asked. "The more time you spend standing here, the more people die painfully and slowly from infection back in the city. Just thought I should point that out real quick." His snideness and general insensitivity wasn't without cause though; what he had said was completely true, the more time they wasted, the more innocent people were being eliminated by this fiasco... and the longer they took getting to the deepest level of these ruins and him and Stone being able to offer Jace proof... the harder it would be to save anyone at all.

Gen half expected Bane to respond to that like he had been, though the commander surprisingly provided nothing in reprimand. "I'll let that one slide," He said, "Only because he actually has a point about that; time is something we don't have much of. Ms. Stone, if you would please continue your explanation..."

"Just Gen is fine," she said, glancing back at him for a moment. "and yes, we do need to get moving on. The computers within this complex, from what the initial exploration teams managed to uncover, are close enough to our own systems that we should in theory be able to hack and bypass our way into them as needed with a bit of creativity and reverse engineering. Like I said before, that's where we'll likely find every bit of information we need regarding the purpose of the facility and it's general layout and security. Put simply, to find the cure, we follow the digital trail down the rabbit hole and into wonderland." Apparently finished with what she needed to say, she stepped back, letting Jace take over again.

"And there you have it," He said. "Our initial strategy within the complex will be to hunt down and break into every single computer system we can find and steal every bit of data out of them. For the sake of effeciency, we will be dividing into seven teams, The inquisitor team, and the attack team, from which there will be made four squads; and before you go saying anything about how 14 does not divide into 4, listen: out of the groups of seven, We will have 2 main teams consisting of four members, which will be repsponsible for carrying out that particular groups task for the mission, and then we will have 2 teams consisting of only 3 members, which will be devoted to conducting reconaissance for whichever group they are in. We will have two high commanders, myself for the inquisitor team, and Commander Stone for the attack team, and then we will have two sub-commanders who will be responsible for the Reconnaissance sub teams, and they are... Lance Quiet, and Garren Forrest." He looked at the two men as he called their names, letting his gaze linger especially long on quiet. "Both of you, step forward!"

[Felicity]

((I'm thinking a little bit of ambition and arrogance may be needed to move this along. Doesn't fit his character, but it's better than nothing.))

Whit stepped forward before the other two. "Sir" Whit addresed his corporal, saluting him as he did so. "If I may be so bold, wouldn't a Sniper such as myself be more ideal to lead a Reconnaisance team?" He knew this would probably stir up shit, but he didn't know these guys abilities and he would rather learn later if he could trust their judgement rather than during a critical moment.

[Sutoratosu]

"Yes, you would," Jace agreed. "But you also lack the leadership and improvisation skills that Garren Forrest and Lance Quiet have displayed so far on this mission. I've read your profile, soldier. You may be damn good at what you do, but put quite simply, you're people and communication skills leave something to be desired and ergo, you are not fit to have command placed in you. With Forrest and Quiet, Stone and myself at least have a simulation backed analysis that there's a higher probability of the Recon teams surviving than with any other possible commanders aside from ourselves. There's alot more that went into this selection than just how far you can see and how well you can aim, soldier."

"Here's what his point is," Stone spoke up coldly, glaring at the sniper. "If you want command, then go down this entire line and list the names of every single one of your fellow soldiers and get at least 3/4s of them right immediately without any assistance. And then when you're done, list each and every last one of their backgrounds and match them to each soldier." He had made his point... chances strongly were that given Whitt's personality, he'd fail that test with flying colors. but then again, everyone here would fail, except of course for Jace and Stone themselves. "The camp was under complete surveillance by the way, We know what each and everyone of you did last night, which of you socialized, which of you put that small amount of time to use and got to know your team mates better, and which of you just basically dicked around and wasted all that opportunity."

"You've made your point, Commander Stone," Jace said, turning his attention back to Garren. Quiet had already stepped up long ago. "Get moving, soldier!" The scout broke out of his day dreaming, apologizing to his commander before stepping up beside the mysterioso swathed in black.

"Now," Jace continued, looking at the rest of the team. "If I call your name, assemble behind Lance Quiet! Whit Venerman! Sarah Answell! Jack Smithson! Kenshin Amano!"

[K_H]

When Jack heard his name called, he quickly did as ordered, and got behind Lance.

[Felicity]

Whit didn't like the tongue-lashing Stone gave him, but like hell would he let it show. Without so much as a word or letting his facial expression even twitch Whit stood beside Lance, not directly behind, and examined the rest of the team. He didn't like the idea of working with with the Chirpy woman who had spoke up earlier, but if she did her job, so be it. Dick thinks I can't lead? Try me. Whit thought to himself.

[Ragnar]

Kenshin sighed. He seems to be boreout from all of this discussion about leadership and social interaction. The mechanic sluggishly went in line as he get behind Lance.

Edited February 1, 2015 by typhlosionrulez