Summary:An assault on an Order facility goes … almost to plan Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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Suntech Systems is a bland name for a bland company that has a bland building in Hell's Kitchen. It mostly deals in microchips and circuit boards. It doesn't even build computers. It just builds parts to computers and other exciting devices like calculators.
They're also an Order Front. They're the most convenient Order front for Ranna to access. She has a code that's still active and that is the best place for her to check it. Odds are VERY good that the Order knows that, so this could be a trap. That is why Kian has agreed to go with her.
He's presently in costume. Waiting.
The meeting place is a side alley by the side of Suntech System. There's a door leading into the building there.
When Ranna arrives, she's in costume as well - loose dark clothing and the mask that covers the lower part of her face.
Shiranui might be a bit concerned by the dull look in her eyes when the ex-Order Ninja arrives, though she nods and greets him "Shiranui. Are you ready to do this?"
"I'd say I was born ready but I kind of wasn't." Shiranui says. His voice is modulated and he already has his sword in hand. "What are you thinking? Roof entry or window?"
Windows are problematic. Any halfway secure building will have alarms on the windows in case they are broken but even - as might be the case in a high rise - if they do not the noise will surely attract attention sooner rather than later.
The rooftop entry is slower but safer from the alarms standpoint. But it does mean they have to navigate whatever security is in place to get to a terminal that Ranna can use.
"I know you weren't." Ranna answers, blinking slowly before considering the building behind him. "I could tell you I have a key and it will just let us in." Her voice isn't modulated. When she gets some money spare, she might indulge in some new gear.
She doesn't have a key and her eyes rise to the roof. "Windows are tricky. Rooftop isn't. We'll need to find the admin office once we're inside, according to the woman I spoke to in the market a few days ago that's on the fifth floor."
"I don't think it's especially wise to depend on that for entrance and egress unless you actually lifted a physical key off of someone." Which it is possible she did, Shiranui knows that. But it also doesn't LOOK like she did.
"It's an eight floor building so the roof is closer than the ground floor. Or we could just kick a window in on the Fifth floor."
That will draw guards though.
"Rooftop it is then. Lead the way, Ryoshi." He can just hop but the moment he does she might get headaches. Best for her to go first.
Ryoshi's eyes are still dull, he's seen her like this before - it was worse but he's seen similar.
The small woman doesn't say anything as the metal flows from the bracers on her arms to form a metal cable with a hook on the end. A cable that she throws to the rooftop - there's no way she can throw that well, except the cable seems to take on a life of its own, snaking upwards and hooking in, so she can climb it.
And climb that cable Ryoshi does. With ease. Shiranui will need to give her a few minutes to shimmy up before he joins her.
Once on the roof top, there's the door - recessed into part of the superstructure.
Shiranui bounds over with comparative ease. It might be enviable really. He doesn't have to climb, only jump. It takes him much less time and much less strain on the muscle. Once there the tech ninja examines the door.
"I've got this." And indeed he does. His power reaches out in a precisely controlled fashion and the latch unlocks itself, letting them in.
"Alright. We're in. Where to?"
He doesn't know the layout of the building and he doesn't really have a way to get it. A lot of what Shiranui does and did is going in blind and trusting that he had enough intel and firepower to carry through whatever surprises lay ahead. It's a kind of dangerous way to operate but when you're the only one…
Shiranui won't see Ryoshi wince as his power activates and by the time he gets to the roof, she's wiping her nose. The tissue is crushed and put in a pocket, but not before he sees the telltale signs of blood on it.
"I thought you might, though I don't how you do it …" she says quietly as the door opens, stepping past him, the chain disappearing under her sleeve again. "Fifth floor. Down the stairs, three floors. I don't recommend using the elevator."
Looking over the balcony of the stair well, Ryoshi nods to herself, springing on the railing easily and then dropping down. She'll have to do this flight by flight but it saves taking all the stairs.
That show off, Shiranui, can probably do it in one.
Shiranui can indeed take it in almost one leap. He drops down breaks his fall by changing his direction and then bouncing off a wall and lands in a three point stance. Remarkably quietly because he did slow using that wall. It's just not fair and one might wonder given how much more versatile his powers is why they sent Ryoshi to get him alone.
He seems like he has more options in a fight. Well, and he does.
The second door unlocks itself and Shiranui peeks out.
"Cameras and guards. They look armed. I count three of them from here. Hard to say what else they might have."
Armed guards for the floor at least tell them that they're headed in the right direction. Anything out of the ordinary - like men with guns guarding HR - is a good sign.
Ryoshi waits on the next flight under Shiranui drops past her, he doesn't see how much pain she's in now each time he uses his powers. It's getting worse.
He's got the door open by the time she joins him, the woman making hardly a sound when she does. "Be careful. If they're Order, they may be like me and be able to detect you. Which means they already know you're here."
They may not be, but you never know.
Ryoshi looks at the fire alarm button on the wall near the door, inclining her head in its direction "Be ready … they'll move when this goes off. Either in this direction or away from that door."
Without waiting, the Order ninja hits the button as a chakram forms in her other hand.
The alarm is immediately accompanied by a flow of gas into the hallway. Shiranui frowns. "Halon gas system." That's unusual. It's used sometimes to preserve paper which doesn't like to get wet, or electronics which has a similar preference. But it's really unusual outside of those situations. The guards immediately move for a cabinet that has some kind of rebreather mask.
Which is where Shiranui shoots one of them.
They don't like that. Not at all. And they have guns.
"Well shit." Ryoshi sighs. She must have broken a lot of mirrors in another life to get this much bad luck now. She's really starting to wonder about that. Maybe she was born under a fated omen or something. Either way, her Chakram arcs out as Shiranui fires.
This time though, the flying disk doesn't aim for their bodies proper - it takes a careful, guided arc around the three of them, aiming for hands and weapons. Hard to shoot when you can't hold the damn gun.
"It … should … clear in a minute." Ryoshi mutters.
The zipping disk shatters hands and breaks guns before it returns to Ryoshi and Shiranui takes advantage of that to shoot again. That puts the other two down nicely though there is still the danger of the gas.
"There might be more around. Grab a rebreather. Don't know how long this will last." It might only last a minute. But it might include airtight doors and that would be inconvenient.
Once they have the masks - they're annoying but at least the air is fresh and cool - it's Ryoshi's turn to lead once more.
Ryoshi doesn't speak as she hands a rebreather to Shiranui. Air is precious about now. Before moving off, she checks the guards pockets taking access cards and handing them to Shiranui.
When she's sure they've got everything, with an incline of her head, the small dark skinned woman leads them down the corridor to what looks like a computer room.
The door is locked, with a card reader and a biometric fingerprint reader. Suntech seem a bit serious about this, don't they. Ryoshi looks back to the guards that laying on the floor - Shiranui can see her nearly calculating if she can cut one of their fingers off.
He, of course, might have a better way to get in.
Shiranui does. He just cuts it. His blade hums with psychic power and slices through the door as if it were made of butter. He kicks it in and then gestures to her. It's impossible to tell but he might be smirking.
She probably would if she had that ability. Again the sheer disparity in their abilities must make one wonder. Is she simply less innately psychic? Or was the Project's Tech that much better? If they really were the first ones to develop it… it might be.
There had been notes in Ryoshi's file that the enhancements she had, had also forced a latent gene to activate. It's possible then, that the Order ninja is just second rate on the power scales. She certainly hadn't received the enhancements he had, though.
Once inside the room, the small woman moves to a terminal, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. It's bleeding again, just a little but it is. Pulling the chair away, Ryoshi brings the monitor up, getting the login screen and staring at it for a very long while before inserting a data key.
Her code is entered, a menu displayed and she's off.
Shiranui can see a light start blinking on a console as the building alarms start to go off. How long before they have people coming through the doors?
"What did you do?" Shiranui knows that she might not have done anything but he's confirming. His weapon contorts to become much more rifle like and he braces it against a low cubicle wall as he kneels. "Can you get anything out of it?"
Because this is a trap. And now they're going to have to at minimum fight their way out. Hopefully they don't need to do anything more drastic than that.
"I entered my code. I told you this might be a trap." Ryoshi answers, keeping her cool though her eyes are still quite dull. "Be ready … I'm trying. There's files here I need to download, unless you want to cut the hard drive out."
It would be quicker perhaps.
The sound of bootfalls sound in the corridor, and the door is thrown open so hard it splinters.
From what Shiranui can see, it's security and only security - they don't wait. Just open fire.
It would be quicker to cut the hard drive but also leaves them with the problem of what to do with it after. Neither really has the savvy to decode what might be on it on their own. They might have help on that front later but not at the moment.
"Just make it quick." That's his call as Shiranui starts to fire back on security. Rather than the automatic chatter of his psy-pistol, as a rifle the weapon projects single, but more powerful, blasts. He's a rather good marksman though this particular case it doesn't matter. The range is so short he'd have to be a very bad shot indeed to miss.
"Right. I'll tell the computer to just hurry the fuck up, shall I…" Ryoshi winces as the pain lances through her head but manages to take a hand off the keyboard. A Chakram forming from the metal on her bracer. She doesn't seem to stop as the disc flies through the air, straight at the first four that come through the door. The first one doesn't see it, they go down in a pile. The second manages to move out of the way, jostling the guard next to them. Who Shiranui just hit.
That's two left in the first wave, more coming through the door.
"There's something else here … in the message. It's hidden. I … "
"Read your email later, please?!" The techninja says as he manifests a kunai and throws it at the two remaining guards. It detonates and sends both guards sprawling. Shiranui didn't even look. He remains aiming down his rifle and when the next group of guards appears they, naturally, don't try straight for the door. They're human beings. They can think and have survival instincts. And that didn't work for the first group, did it?
"There will be more coming down the other exits. We're not going to get out of here without a lot of violence if we stay too much longer. How much more do you need to get?"
"It's not email!!" Ryoshi grunts, winceing as the Kunai manifests. "It's decoding. Not long. Seconds maybe … " The next group roll something into the room. It's cylindrical and it's aiming straight for the techninja.
Ryoshi's chakram comes spinning back along the same path, this time detouring the door and back in. There's at least one thud.
"Almost … got it… just a moment more …"
Well crap. The only thing that Shiranui can do is duck and duck he does. This is exactly the kind of thing his shields are bad at because he has to guess when the device - presumably a grenade - will go off. The best thing to do with those is get low. Most blast upward. That's partly physics and partly design. So getting down and if possible behind cover is the best thing.
Mind you, a cubicle wall isn't the world's best cover but it's better than nothing.
"Ryoshi! Grenade!"
"Are you kidding me?" Ryoshi watches as Shiranui ducks, her chakram swinging back into the room and *behind* the grenade. It's a work of precision, the way the edge flattens and dips down a little, flicking the grenade back out to the corridor.
There's still the backwash of concussive force to deal with but better than a grenade in the face, right?
"Shiranui? I guess your tech isn't all encompassing…" It's quiet outside for the moment as Ryoshi tears the key from the computer. "Let's go. Lead us out."
The chakram returns to the small womans hand.
"It was enough to deal with you." Shiranui snaps as his gun shifts back into pistol mode and he draws his blade again. The group they're dealing with now needs a moment to compose itself but they're not going that way. They're headed back toward the exit and there will be more guards in that direction.
And there are. Shiranui rounds a corner right into them. Which is bad for them because they have guns and he has a sword and that just… sort of goes generally poorly for everyone who isn't a ninja. He's among them in less than a second, slicing and slamming. He seems to know where everyone is even if he's not looking at them. It's over in less time than it takes to describe. None of them laid a finger on him.
Ryoshi flinches at Shiranui's snap. She might have deserved it but it shows what he thinks of her.
As Shiranui takes out the next group of guards, Ranna doesn't even have time to fling her chakram. "And them." she adds dryly, stepping over the bodies to pen the door to the stairs.
"Going up …" The chakram transforms into that hooked chain she used before. It goes up several floors before it hooks on. "… see you up there…"
Shiarnui actually waits as Ryoshi goes up. It's not that he thinks he needs to hold them off he just wants her to get to the top before he goes up himself. That does mean he has to engage in a gun battle with the latest and smartest group of security to arrive which shoots at him from the far end of the hallway. A solid minute of that goes on before he's able to leap away.
The rooftop isn't safety though and he knows that. He has to at least make the next building over and probably more like the next couple of blocks over before he can relax.
Ryoshi is glad that Shiranui waits. Her head hurts as it is. It's not like she can send her Chakram down to take people out, she ends up peeking over the railing waiting for him to exfil.
"Keep moving." she grunts as they skip across the rooftop. "I'll catch you four buildings over." He can move faster than her, she knows that.
There's the sound of feet in the stairs behind them, Ryoshi waits until Shiranui is clear.
Shiranui wastes no time getting out of there. In short order he's on the next building and not long after that he's got some real separation. Ryoshi knows he's clear when her implants stop jolting. It means he's stopped using his powers. He is waiting right?
A telekinetic bolt delivered from a distance of half a mile says yes. Yes he most certainly is waiting for her.
It takes Ryoshi several minutes to catch up. When she does she flops on the rooftop, breathing slightly heavily. "Are you hurt?" It's the first thing she asks the techninja, looking at him critically. "I warned you that might be a trap. But I got the data. Someone left me a message on the system - they knew I would come for it."
She holds up the usb key. "I don't know I want to read it."
"Bruised in a couple of places where the armor took a bullet." It must be nice to have armor like that. Which is to say armor that works. The modulation is a nice perk too. And the face hiding. She wouldn't have any idea what he looks like to this day if she'd only ever seen him in that armor.
"Who do you know who might have left you a message? And who do you know who might have set up a trap like that?"
As traps go? Not a great one. Ideally your target doesn't know that there IS a trap.
"Take the key, see what's on it. If … you think I need to know the message, I trust you." Ryoshi shoves the key into Shiranui's hand, looking away when he asks his questions. She'd known they were coming.
"The Order set the trap. My old Master, most likely. He didn't accept failure and if he thought he could lure me to be caught …" she shakes her head. "I would have expected Shadow Stalker or Nightmare to be waiting. To kill you and take me into custody or kill me. It doesn't make sense. They knew I would try my code, they were ready for me."
Or was it they were ready for one *like* her?
"There's only one person I know who would have left a message and I don't want to hear how disappointed my Mother is in me."
"Your Mother?" Ranna had mentioned that before. That her mother was the reason she was in the Order in the way that she was. Shiranui pockets the key. He'll have it looked at and yes, if he thinks she should see the message he'll get it to her.
"You would have only gotten this message if you'd made it out alive. Do you really think your mother would leave a hidden message about what a terrible child you are on the off chance that you survive walking into a trap?"
Because in terms of delivery… that seems like rather low odds.
"She encouraged me to join the Order, Shiranui." Ryoshi turns her back on the techninja. Her nose is bleeding again and her head hurts. "I rebelled and I've bought disgrace on our name. All the women before me were Daughters of the Order."
What other message could it be than disappointment and a plea to return to the fold, all would be forgiven?
"Take it Shiranui and let me know. I'm …. going to go."
"Alright." Shiranui knows better than to press this. He'll let her go if only because there isn't anything else he can do. There's no use arguing what the message he could be. It's just better to translate it and see what it is. If it's too hurtful he just won't bring it up.
Once she's well away he takes off in the other direction and into the night.