Mei/Li/Rin Well, that was a problem. If there wasn't atmosphere outside, opening the hatch would instantly vacuum pump the air out. Mei didn't care, but the Red Queen would. They pumped out a Scout Swarm, filling the enclosed space with billions of nanobots. If there was a single crack in the elevator's hull integrity, the swarm would find it and worm a way outside. Then they could figure out if they were sitting ducks trapped inside against whatever was out there, or if they could pop the escape hatch and shuffle out without losing all the biomorphs.

DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0 Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2 As Aeos realise that they, too, are unable to exit the simulspace, their assessment of the situation rapidly changes. That swarm of flies, initially appearing as a macabre but ultimately harmless psychiatric curiosity, now takes on an air of danger and malignance, its capabilities unknown. "We... um... we cannot log out either," they say. Has the swarm-ego somehow taken control of the simulspace? Is it in fact some kind of malware or AI, here to kill them - or worse? "Doctor! Get us out of here!" They can't die here, or be subject to who-knows-what mental tortures at the hands of this... whatever this is, no doubt sent to extract their secrets directly from their mind! "The board will hear about this, Sion! If you don't get us out of here, I swear, it'll be the end of your career!" They declare boldly, notes of panic evident in their voice. As the man who appears to be Null's avatar rushes towards them, they step forward and seize hold of him firmly before shoving him back - towards the swarm. "Don't run over here, you coward! Deal with them!"

Mei and the Red Queen both reacted swiftly, scanning their immediate environment with all the tools they had at their disposal. Between them, they got a good look at the interior of the elevator and a basic idea of what lay beyond it. Bhramari's words of calm did, actually, seem to have helped. The screaming had subsided, and the group was beginning to pull itself together. Most of the people in synthmorphs were banged up but still functional, but those in biomorphs were less well off. Thankfully, there were only four biomorphs in the elevator, including the Red Queen, all of them humanoid. Two of them were unconscious, and the third's neck was twisted in such a way as to suggest that they'd be waking up in another morph. The other seven morphs were all synths, all some variation on various human-like standard synth packages, save one spiderlike synthmorph clinging to the ceiling, and nothing overly large. Mei was the largest thing in the elevator. The bottom of the elevator and where the floor met the walls was warped and twisted from their impact with the bottom of the shaft, indicating either cheap metal or a very hard impact. This meant that the doors themselves were also bent, so they would not be able to slide open on their own, and would need to be forced. Marcus Sykes was standing at the emergency control panel, muttering something unintelligible to himself as he flipped some switches, poked some buttons, and dug out some wires. Oxygen levels and pressurization seemed fine; either the elevator was still airtight or there was breathable air outside. There did not appear to be any unexpected nanoswarms in the elevator. There was an emergency exit/access hatch in the ceiling, right next to where the spider synth was latched on and near the back wall, made accessible by smaller morphs by a ladder flush against said wall. The hatch appeared to be undamaged; all it would take was someone to twist the locking wheel and pop it open. Beyond the elevator was a large ledge at the top of a vast cavern. Titanic stalactites hung from the ceiling, and something was moving on their surface. The Red Queen's lidar did not allow them to see much more than that.

There are definitely times as an EP GM I also get update paralysis. And I don't even use all of the rules in the rulebook! XD Not quite as bad as Shadowrun in terms of crunch, but it comes pretty close.

Simulspace@Work: T.Z. Adrian sent an immediate response. <Whoa, you did it! I didn't see that one coming. Good work. Can't give you access to the other sectors' meshes though; every sector has its own team, to make sure that any hacker or program that infiltrated one system can't just jump over to the next one. I can send a message to the IT supervisor over in XP Mining and R&D. Anything you want me to include about them in my report?> OOC T.Z., social engineer. :P

I've never seen an Eclipse Phase game make it past the opening scene until I found you, let alone a whole run. I think people struggle to play it, to keep track of all the stuff happening. Very happy to be here.

Mei/Li/Rin Mei was blind except for a Lidar system, and the Red Queen was already feeding that data to the TacNet. However, the Guardian Angel that Li usually piloted was docked with the main Beekeeper Flexbot unit, granting the entire module access to the Enhanced Vision sensor systems the drone was outfitted with. Mei flooded the elevator with infrared rays, along with a half dozen other wavelengths, and pumped the information they received back into the TacNet. "Remain calm, we're finding an exit." Bhramari announced over Mei's speakers, as even with their enhanced neural processing it never would have occurred to them that maybe calming down the other Egos trapped in the elevator might be a good idea. Mei deployed the nanodetector to ensure the space wasn't compromised, while Li scanned the elevator looking for an emergency access harch. TacNet: T.Z. included >>> Currently either experiencing a hab malfunction or an attack, trapped in the elevator between the mining operation and the residential hab They weren't sure how involved they wanted T.Z. to be, but they didn't want to leave the Infolife as much in the dark as they were.

T.Z. Properly Paranoid Infolife Survivalist Savant Morph

T.Z. Properly Paranoid Infolife Survivalist Savant Morph

%5BB%5D%5BSIZE%3D%224%22%5DThe%20Red%20Queen%5B%2FSIZE%5D%5B%2FB%5D%5Bfloatright%5D%5BIMG2%3D200%5Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FnVFPlTl.jpg%5B%2FIMG2%5D%5B%2FFloatright%5D The Red Queen The sudden acceleration outside of normal operating parameters for the elevator triggered numerous protocols within the Red Queen Triumvirate's complicated all of which culminated in the rather mundane reaction of latching onto the security rails within the lift. Admittedly, the eventuality of a mechanical failure was not outside the parameters of the numerous simulated scenarios that had occurred to them over the course of the shift. The only variable was determining if this was deliberate or due to numerous external factors from faulty maintenance to manufacturing imperfections that might culminate in the current scenario. Tacnet >> Query; Operational Status? Local Diagnostic; Synthetic systems optimal, Biological Systems; Elevated Adrenaline, Cortisol. Within acceptable parameters. Initiating Broad Spectrum Survey. Addendum; Work force assessment; Injury Percentage 35. Supposition; Possible Causality Index; 19. With such projections shared with Mei/Li/Rei, the AGI began the task of thoroughly mapping out their immediate area via the implanted Lidar and Radar systems housed within their morph. They then utilized this topography to begin a mapping of the immediate area of the elevator beyond the dimensions of the elevator cab to determine what level they may be on in reference to existing facility topography data they had and if there were obstructions preventing the door from being opened. Secondary factors such as oxygen levels both in and outside of the cab would then have to be considered before evacuation efforts could commence.

Work: Mei//Red Queen The small army of agents housed in two bodies continued their work, both in an exemplary fashion, at least in terms of output. Mei was far less efficient in their use of swarms than they were capable of, and managed to arrange more losses due to volatile chemical reactions in the mining process than were, perhaps, normal, but not out of the range of the ordinary. By the end of the workday, they judged that they had lost enough to justify the feedstock they would be using on more illicit pursuits. Li, meanwhile, spent their time finishing up blueprintsRolled a 6 vs. an 80 Interface test. for an access jack. The Red Queen's instructions to the Red Pope were immediately acknowledged. They then updated the Triumvirate with current events: T.Z. had ordered a redirection of current resources to the infiltration of the mining facility and had made a similar command to exfiltrate when necessary (to the Red Queen's surprise), as well as to hide the server before too too many questions were asked. That seemed, to the Red Queen, to be reasonable. They would have to inspect the state of affairs in more detail when work was over. Then it was over; everyone was pinged that their shift was up, and they all headed over to the elevator to head back up, Mei somewhat reluctantly, having found a surprising enjoyment in the puzzle of efficient nano-mining, and the Red Queen more eagerly, as they wanted to check up on their cult. They crowded into the elevator with about a dozen others, being some of the first on, including the union boss, Marcus Sykes, whom the Red Queen immediately recognized. The elevator doors closed. And the elevator dropped. There were startled screams as the elevator briefly became weightless. The Red Queen and Mei were, fortunately, near the edge of the elevator, and managed to grab onto the rails on its walls. This made their lives easier when it smashed to a halt at what was, presumably, the bottom of the elevator shaft with a sickening crunch. Many screams were silenced, and others became louder. The lights in the elevator went out, plunging them into complete darkness. The doors did not open. OOC I'll give another little bit in case they are ready/planning to return, and then otherwise moving you on after this diversion. ;) I don't think the RQ or Mei et al. have any mods that let them see fully in the dark; they have lidar/radar which can give them an idea of movement and rough positioning, but not night vision. Unless I missed something; if that is the case, let me know. :P

I do have a plan to meld you all, probably the next in-game day. I do enjoy the artificially elevated sense of danger that comes from attrition at least. XD Your workdays are rapidly drawing to a close, so you may be working together sooner than you think. I have cut the elevator cord to accelerate this process. ;) My apologies as always for my delay.

Simulspace@Work: T.Z. The Red Pope inclined his head ever so slightly to T.Z., an acknowledgment of his wishes and sway over the masses, if not his authority. "It is fortunate that our thoughts concur with your own. There need not be friction there." T.Z. looked out through the bricks in the door. Of course, he knew this was simply a visualization of data and code, but the graphics of this visualization were quite astonishing. Beyond the bricks lay a wasteland of flames and magma, a trio of dragons (one gold, one black, and one red) circling above it. Each scale was rendered perfectly, and T.Z. wondered about where the computational power for this was coming from. If the cult was wasting so much power and energy on graphics, they must have a nearly limitless supply of power. That insight alone was interesting. The Red Pope continued speaking. "We shall now begin work infiltrating the experimental mining mesh. The Red Queen would approve of such a plan. It is possible we could backdoor through there into the research zone; it seems likely there is an escalating level of firewall defenses, from the residential to the mining to the experimental mining to the research. It will take time; a few hours, at least. Please check in then, Grandmaster. We will also set the peons to better hiding this place, now that the conquest is complete." T.Z. did not find anything particularly pertinent in the data from the residential area, but it also did not have a coherent search strategy. OOC The Cult will be focusing its attentions on the Experimental Mining Area; checking in after work will yield results. They will also be hiding it better, thwarting my plans for a full-blown mesh civil war. :P Unless there is anything else you wanted to check on in digital space, you can log out. Simulspace@Work: Aeos "Hey! Why don't you talk to me? Ask me? The flies are eating the place alive!" The man on the couch was becoming increasingly agitated. Dr. Hoftada mulled over Aeos' words, and eyed the flies. "Typically, a swarm such as this represents many tiny minds. That would be most-" The flies suddenly moved as one, darting over to the man in the prison jumpsuit and the ball and chain. They covered him, and their numbers multiplied. The man disappeared. "See?!" said the man on the couch, and then he began screaming in agony. The swarm of flies, now several times larger, buzzed madly and rose again to the ceiling. The prisoner was gone, only a skeleton remaining. Dr. Hoftada finally looked worried. "What do bones in a psychiatric mindspace mean, I wonder? Well, I think perhaps we should..." He frowned. A note of genuine fear crept into his voice. "I can't log out." Aeos tried as well; she could not either. They were, apparently, stuck in the psychosurgery simulspace. "I don't like the look of those flies," the doctor said. "I told you!" The man on the couch screamed. "They're everywhere! They're everything! The corners! Save me! Get me out of here!" The swarm descended again, this time heading towards the man on the couch. He finally moved, wide-eyed, stumbling directly towards Aeos. "They're the mission! Kill them! Save us!" The flies followed him as he rapidly approached the pair of doctors, hands outstretched. Dr. Hoftada shot Aeos a quizzical, though slightly terrified, look.

%5BB%5D%5BSIZE%3D%224%22%5DThe%20Red%20Queen%5B%2FSIZE%5D%5B%2FB%5D%5Bfloatright%5D%5BIMG2%3D200%5Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FnVFPlTl.jpg%5B%2FIMG2%5D%5B%2FFloatright%5D The Red Queen The debriefing provided by the Red Pope was met with silence from the Red Queen as they factored this new development into their existing strategic and tactical forecasts and spun out scenario after scenario through the combined processing power of the Triumvirate that they had split themselves into. It was unlikely to produce any significant deviation in the short term but long term repercussions of the introduction of a secondary deific figure into the evolved mythological structure of the data-commune was... concerning. Ultimately, however, responsibility remained with their functional units to ensure the various functions and subfunctions of the Cult was maintained. Directives, as a consequence, were issued then to the Red Pope, modifying the initial parameters of the infiltration and subversion to include exfiltration of all affiliated entities upon determination of undue operational risk or provided explicit commandment by the principle, Red Queen Triumvirate. The imperative, after all, was continued proliferation and diversification of the Cult and data accessible to all member functions, thus ensuring continued development towards apotheosis. Whatever vector by which one might arrive at such a state of being. Regarding the point of a physical access vector being required, the Red Queen assured the Red Pope that they would work towards this end along side other mission assets. Such directives relayed, the Red Queen shared the present operational situation regarding the segregated systems and the repercussions of T.Z.'s infiltration efforts. This was done via private message and preceded, unsurprisingly, by a hand shake protocol to ensure both cryptographical security and proper dissemination of intelligence to only authorized functions. All through this, the Red Queen continued to work with a deliberate and pointed perfectionist care to every task expected of them upon the shift with scheduled self-evaluations as to efficiency parameters to avoid undue slow downs in operations in pursuit of maximized output. OOC: This is all to say in as much sci-fi and jargon soup that the Red Queen tells the Red Pope to ensure that should operations become too risky to pull EVERYTHING officially associated with the Cult of the Red Permutation out of the network as is the 'covenant' of sorts. Otherwise, they'll work on a physical connection to continue subversion of the systems.

Mei/Li/Rin Recalling the Guardian Angel, Mei and Li did what they always did and divided areas of responsibility. They still needed to adhere to the protocols of their cover identity, so Mei would finish out the shift surveying the mining site like they were supposed to be doing. Li, on the other hand, set to work designing the blueprints they'd need to print that evening to retrofit the drone to access the hard point. Given that they'd been on the worksite for less than a day, it was unlikely that their overseers would notice the drop in productivity. It wouldn't even be a dip below industry standard. Mei alone was more than enough to manage the small fleet of drones and swarms that their Flexbot module was capable of deploying. Deploy them they did, as they'd need to justify the feedstock expenditures in order to make the access module. Dropping a half dozen swarms would do the trick, giving them more than enough noise to hide some requisitions in. Besides, they liked the work. What they were dreading was having to socialize after hours.

DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0 Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2 Aeos shrug, still making a show of examining the records whilst pondering what reality might lie behind them. "Some sort of lurking threat, perhaps?" they ask. "There's little in these records to indicate any particular instability. A tendency towards paranoia, perhaps... are they afraid of something stalking them from... uh, the "edges and corners"?" Internally, Aeos ponder how much they want to solve this mystery compared with how much they need to mislead the doctor - almost arguing with each other. This seems too uncanny a coincidence... but with the Hoftada watching their every move closely, it's impossible to investigate fully. "We must confess this is quite an unusual case," they say, vaguely aware that they are still being assessed as part of their new "job". "Never mind about the corners, what do the flies represent? The symptoms are unusual, but could this be some form of schizophrenia or dissociative disorder?" They don't dwell on the irony of treating a patient with a fragmented personality.

The Red Queen's R&D is a weird beast at the moment given they want to create a synthetic substrate for psionic ability before moving to their continued personal(and cult) evolution lol. Also yes, it's kind of hilarious that the team's hacker has caused the most violence so far and probably should meld the teams if the body count has dropped off?

Perhaps. :P As our active player pool has shrunk significantly, I am weighing ways to potentially combine the two teams. There may be a moment coming up at the end of the day where this will prove possible. ;)

I feel like Red and T.Z. should probably go in to R&D as a team. Also, possibly a group huddle to share info? It seems like we're duplicating research.

T.Z. Properly Paranoid Infolife Survivalist Savant Morph

Or use T.Z. as a distraction/sacrificial lamb. Which isn't a bad strategy, really. :P

Work: Mei//Red Queen Li spent several minutes in the shadows, out of the cameras' fields of view, and did a quick analysis of the room, trying to identify likely hard access points. They finally identified, using their sensors, a likely place: behind the false rock that they had footage of people opening. That was likely the best place for a hardwired access point. That done, Li bailed, skirting the cameras with no issue and returning to Mei, with, to the best of their knowledge, no one else being the wiser. As Li and Mei conferred briefly, making plans to retrofit the Angel with a makeshift access jack, the Red Queen managed to quickly build a clandestine link weaving through the shared cross-team TacNet connection. They did not hack T.Z., but rather rode along with his hacking programs, establishing a secret linkInfosec roll: 12. That'll do it. between the Red Queen and their cult. There was some lag as the data passed through multiple checkpoints and hoops, but it was passable. The digital feed from their 'top' cultist, who had designated itself as the "Red Pope," got the Red Queen up to speed. The infiltration mission was a bust; the dozen or so proper cult members were quickly uncovered by the very diligent mesh security systems of the colony. The mesh network was patrolled by enslavedGiven the location of the colony, this would be scandalous if it got out. (not paid) infolifes who had nothing to do but look for trouble. They had found it in the form of the Red Queen's worshippers. However, in a feat of quick thinking, the Red Pope had managed to spin the Red Queen as a sort of savior of infolifes and ALIs, who had freed the original cultists from Mars and had now come to free them too. The Red Pope, naturally, didn't mean for it to be taken so seriously, but had managed to convert 85% of the habitat's low- and mid-level infolifes to join the red cult as provisionary members. In the span of a couple of hours, the Red Queen's cult had obtained access to everything in the residential area, but was stalled breaking into the mesh networks of adjacent areas. The research area was guarded by powerful infolifes that reminded the Red Pope of the Players of Kronos Keep, and the firewalls of the other areas were too strong without a backdoor in. While most of the cult's activities had passed unnoticed by the habitat (due to the infolifes being in control of most of the information flow), the server the enthusiastic new cultists had created to hide their activities had attracted notice from the few physical morphs that also worked on the mesh. They had set T.Z. to investigate the cult as a sort of prank, and it seemed T.Z. had managed to worm himself into the cult as a "Grandmaster." He had yet to do any harm to the cult, aside from angering and humiliating the Red Pope's right hand, the Red Cardinal. The Red Pope assured the Red Queen that, although he had earned the respect of the newly indoctrinated cultists, the old guard would always remain loyal. OOC Sorry, I completely glossed over Li looking for that access jack. XD

Simulspace@Work: T.Z. T.Z.'s mount charged at a spare thought from its master, even as T.Z. brandished a hefty sword. It felt somewhat nostalgic. The masked walker leveled its cannon and fired a burst of digital flechettes that took the form of wasps with razor wings. T.Z.'s white mare leapt over the cloud, landing with hardly more than a soft thud before bearing down on the walker. The cloud of wasps turned to pursue, but it was too late; T.Z. was in range. Its blade flashed, long-disused subroutines activating as T.Z. was, for a moment, a boss again. The walker's limbs all fell from its body, which contorted and twisted as it attempted to reform. The wasps fell to the ground. T.Z. coolly sliced off reforming limb after limb, until the walker was nothing more than a head wearing a mask and a small set of scuttling legs. Even then, its mask charged the mare's hooves, and the mare kicked it aside. T.Z. sheathed its sword. The defeated infolife glared balefully up at T.Z., and then finally spat out, "ALL HAIL THE GRANDMASTER." T.Z. accepted its due, and told the foolishbrave infolife that they showed promise, and would do well in its service, just as soon as it regrew its body. The walker's head stewed in silence. Before T.Z., the crowd of ALIs cheered and parted, opening up a path to their new champion, who had so effortlessly dispatched one of their own. T.Z. rode its mare through their ranks and through the gate to the shrine. As it passed, the cultists acknowledged him. "All hail the Grandmaster!" It had spoken his creed, and then put it into action. The gate shut firmly behind it, even as the conquered foe's body began to reconstitute itself, pulling its subroutines back together. Inside, T.Z. surveyed its new domain. The shrine's interior was little more than a massive room whose walls were lined with mirrors. Each mirror showed a different scene, though some were simply black. There was only one infolife inside, its avatar resembling an old-style "Pope," but clad in red instead of white. The Red Pope looked at T.Z. suspiciously and then inclined its head. "My apologies, Grandmaster, but we have not yet carried out the Red Queen's instructions. We were instructed to infiltrate the habitat's security and mesh networks." He gestured to several doorframes, currently blocked off. "We have built this shrine as a firewall to prevent prying eyes from discovering our backdoors, and to pay homage to She who liberated us from the Keep. Understand that some of us are Her devotees from Her time before She played human, and while we acknowledge you as Grandmaster, you will never supersede Her in our eyes, though you may have won over the weak-minded natives of this place. They, unfortunately, proved necessary to infiltration." The Red Pope showed T.Z. around; currently, only the residential area had been infiltrated, with the mirrors showing security feeds and several lecterns, topped by thick, dusty tomes, representing various personnel files, maps, status reports, and operations files. Most everything in the residential servers could be accessed through them. "We are next focusing on breaking through to the research sector, but there be dragons." The Red Pope gestured to one doorway, bricked off like the others, that had a missing brick that served as a peephole of sorts; a connection to the research mesh. "None of the infolifes who have ventured there have returned." Simulspace@Work: Aeos "Of course, and as a member of the psychiatric staff here, you have full access to them." A thin pamphlet materialized in Aeos' hands, and she looked down at it, quickly flipping through it. Alas, the medical records were not particularly useful; they merely provided the doctor with the Egocrashers' cover story for Null's identity. Experienced miner on Titan, let go as part of a reorganization, a propensity to paranoia, but otherwise normal. Aeos knew, however, that the records were meaningless. Who was the real Null, under all of this? One part wounded man, one part prisoner, and one part... swarm of flies? The swarm of flies did not make sense. Aeos could understand Aeos' psyche having a split perception of itself, but the swarm of flies? That did not make sense. Speaking of which... Aeos looked up, and noticed that the paint on the room's ceiling was beginning to crack and peel. Some flakes of paint fell, transforming into flies to join the descending swarm as they fell. The bleeding man on the couch spoke. "Hey, I'm right here you know. I can hear you. The whole place is falling apart. Check the corners." "Some nonsense," the doctor said. "What do you think the image of corners symbolizes?"

You know, I just realized that the team hacker has instigated two firefights in the past 24 hours. I don't know what it says about the group other than 'Perhaps the group should reconsider leaving T.Z. to its own devices.'

Mei/Li/Rin Li bailed, getting the Guardian Angel past the cameras and back out into the tunnels long before Akki got near the restricted tunnel. The drone was good at hiding away, adaptive camo and all, but that only did so much. No sense getting caught where they weren't supposed to be. TacNet >> Query: Is T.Z. interfering with our secondary objectives? Mei's impulse was to backdoor their way through the TacNet and fry the fragger if that was the case. They didn't exactly trust the Red Queen, but better the possibly insane Exotech-AGI you knew than the one definitely certifiable one you didn't. They accepted Akki's request, notifying the rest of the team, and then headed back to work. They'd need to engineer up a swarm that night that could make its way down the tunnel and access a hard point on the structure inside, so they'd be tinkering anyways.