AWD #487: Return To the Truth
Return To the Truth
Summary: Colonial forces receive a vital message from ancient Piraeans that changes everyone.
Date: 21/10/2016
Related Logs: Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers
Angelis Gray Kapali Kelsey Randy 
Command Bunker
They start inside. See the log…
08/05/2006

The original crew was to return. They brought a little extra this time because they never knew what might occur. Given the emotions surrounding the last visit to the bunker, people might feel better having more company there. Kelsey flies them all down to the surface without a word and lands with the floodlights filling the tunnel. Like every time she flies, she's wearing her big survival vest and extra combat gear - even if they are only going to P. Before heading down the helmet, she makes sure everyone has on Marine combat helmets with the small GoPro's attached to the sides. Extra flashlights are also passed out and also respirator masks. "Everyone wears a mask, no exceptions." Everyone is also given a small backpack, each with a stack of immaculate white sheets in them. No explanation there.

Down the tunnel, the air gets even colder. The writing on the wall is still undeciphered but will always look official despite thousands of years of fading little by little. The golden sea of expended brass at the end is motionless, too. But the airlock is the last passage before entering inside. Kelsey stops in front of the airlock and looks at each of them, tightening her mask. "There are a lot of bodies in some pretty sad states. Do not touch a body under any circumstances. You do not want to know what I'll do." She leaves that there. "It is pitch black in there. You might feel Them. Just go with it. We have one mission. Open the door, find whatever is inside, get out. If we see something that looks important? let me know. I retain command on this one. Weapons stay on safety." She then moves towards the airlock and steps through the first hatch.

Gray nods in acknowledgement to his orders. He's not quite in full armor… but really all he's missing are superfluous accessories. He's clearly ready for wherever. "Understood" he says as he masks up, waiting for orders to proceed.

"Yes, Sir." Angelis responds to the pilot. She dips her head in a nod before securing her mask, then going over her gear. She's not in full combat gear, either, but still manages to look ready for any potential action as best she can. She adjusts the small backpack, and stands at ease by the airlock, awaiting further orders like a good little Marine.

"Do not touch anything actually. /Anything/ you touch will likely fall a part, so it's better safe than sorry…if I may add sir," Randy offers a deferential nod to Kelsey before the group advances through the airlock. In addition to the gear issued, she has a black equipment case with her. She sets it down so she can secure her mask. Then she moves up to the front and follows Kelsey in, taking point once they've past the threshold of the seal.

Kelsey make sure everyone is in before cycling the pressure lock. It works like any one the ship, assumedly. Once its all equalized they can feel the difference in the air. It feels thicker, heavier. The weight of something on the other side of the door. Kelsey hefts the bag to her shoulder and pushes the door out, waiting for Randy to go first.

The group enters the primary entry area and it looks like the first floor of an office complex. There's a check-in desk and couches and chairs all scattered about, most of them in tatters. There are bulletholes and scorch marks all over the walls. Papers litter the floor. There aren't any bodies immediately visible, but the footsteps of the prior entrants can clearly be made out in the dried-out carpet. They lead off down a hallway to the left, past a set of armored elevator doors that have collapsed. That's apparently the way they are going. "If you can't look at a body or have problems with it, and you might, use the white sheet in your bag to cover them." Its pitch black in here except for the lights cutting through.

<FS3> Kelsey rolls Alertness: Success.
<FS3> Angelis rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Randy rolls Alertness: Success.
<FS3> Gray rolls Alertness: Success.

They're barely into the hallway when they can all feel them. Them. Its like wading into a thicker air, but the feeling isn't like moving through gaseous atmosphere. It feels like moving through a crowd of people. They can feel the weight of the eyes upon them. Hundreds. Maybe more. Even as they move, the group could swear they can feel fingers brush their hands as if to hold on to them gently. The feel of clothing lightly shifting as if moving against other clothes. They are here with Them. The cold air only gets colder, too, the further they move.

Randy slows down even more when they enter the feeling of moving through people-soup-with-eyes. She moves the group deep through the hallway so that everyone can feel it, or at least she's pretty sure. She then pauses and looks back to locate Kelsey, giving her a thumbs up with arched eyebrows. "Everyone okay?"

Shivers run up and down Gray's spine as he feels…well, someone or something…touch him. "Holding up alright" he says. His voice betrays some level of unease, though… "Anyone know /why/ it's getting colder?" he asks, trying (and failing) to distract himself from the touching he's feeling.

As she moves along behind Randy, Tabi rolls her shoulders slightly, her flashlight moving slowly and steadily. That's when she catches that glimpse of Them. Just enough to make her pause, boot lifted to move forward, but not landing just yet. Angelis takes a steadying breath, murmering a quiet prayer under her breath in her native language before continuing onward. The fingers of her free hand tuck themselves into the strap of the backpack, thusly keeping both hands occupied and negating the almost overwhelming need to actually /touch/ anything. When Randy does a check, Tabi thumbs up, "Yes, Sarn't." She replies, her voice low, slightly reverant.

Kelsey's eyes are troubled but she flashes a thumbs up. The young pilot has been down here before and this is a test of wills to force herself to do it again. Anyone can see in her eyes that she doesn't want to be here, but she's doing it anyway.

Moving down the hallway, that's when they start to encounter bodies. The first one is in a small off-shoot hallway. Randy remembers that one in particular. That bodyarmor has collapsed the torso, its jaw left open in silent scream with empty eye sockets. The remnants of a rifle on the floor beside it. The small sea of brass around the body. The pistol fired empty and sitting at slide lock 3000 years later.

Continuing, most of the doors on the hallway look like they have been blasted open and the rooms ransacked. No sign of what did this, though. Only the occasional glimpse into an office and seeing an outstretched arm. Spent brass. Stained and rotten carpet. Hitting the end of the hallway it doglegs to the left and they're faced with a security station. Bodies. Half a dozen of them. All of them in bodyarmor. Brass and belt-links from a machinegun. The MG is discarded on the floor. Most of the bodies have their pistols out. Behind them is another elevator, but the doors are missing and the sound of their footsteps echoes, telling them that this hole right there is deeper than they ever want to fall. To the right is a stairwell with a body holding it open.

Kelsey motions for Randy to move to the stairwell after a reluctant second or five. The JG really doesn't want to go into this stairwell, but frakked if she's going to stay up here by herself. Her own breathing can be heard, a bit of steam in the cold air, moving out of the vents from her mask.

From her position at the end of the column, Kapali takes what time there is between advancing forward to pan side to side, letting the GoPro pick up what it can. She pans toward the armored elevator doors that have collapsed but doesn't approach it, at least not more than an inch in that direction, curiosity more than an instinct to leap and see how long the lift shaft is. "Lack of geothermal energy supplying the heating and ventilation system, paired with this facility actually being built into the heart of the mountain itself, a lack of genuine airflow to resupply any lingering heat? Any of the above," she suggests before she gives a shrug that Gray probably can't see before her words trail off, whether that was the intended end of her reply or not.

<FS3> Angelis rolls Alertness: Good Success.
<FS3> Gray rolls Alertness: Good Success.

The first soldier. Randy has memories with that one. She pauses a moment in front of it and then moves on, very careful not to disturb it and makes sure she points out any obstacles. As they move through, she rounds he way to the Security Station and waits a moment to make sure they've all regrouped before heading onto the stairwell. Her facial expressions are like stone as her eyes glitter in the darkness from the team's lights. "It's about to get harder," she murmurs into the comms before she turns to advance towards the stairwell. She opens the door just enough for her to slip through. "I want someone on this door helping people through. Be careful to step where I step. Follow the leader." She holds the door open gently for Angelis to take after her. She stands there, inside the stairwell, her flashlight pointing at a downward angle, not moving, not breathing, completely catatonic and unresponsive for about twenty seconds before she begins the descent.

Gray looks around as they advance slowly, noting the massive number of human-looking bodies as they pass the security station. It roughly lines up with the AARs he'd read. "You know…have we eliminated the chance this was blue on blue? Some sort of internal war within the natives?" He's trying to eyeball the scene for how bodies are arrayed and so on.

Angelis shivers, her steps slowing as the first body is encountered. She actually pauses, doing a full 360 turn, her flashlight moving slowly. "Uh… so… what were they shooting at?" She asks, her voice barely above a whisper. So it's quite possible it goes unheard. She moves onward slowly, eventually, shivering a little in the cold air.

Kelsey moves slowly, careful to keep her hands on the walls while she moves, not wanting to fall. She's not quite shaking, but she is certainly breathing heavier. There's nothing to say, she just begins the descent.

Ahead of them is a stairwell. Reinforced concrete with bullet pockmarks all over the walls in every direction, even up. There's bodies at almost every turn down. Plenty of armored soldiers at first, their faces staring up at them as they descend. There is the very real feeling that they are entering a tomb. Or descending to meet the Ferryman personally. The feeling of sadness begins to creep in, Their voices almost heard whispering around them. The feeling of that company doesn't leave. Five stories down. Ten. They stop seeing so many armored troops. They start to see more of them in what looked like it could have been civilian attire. Guns by all of them. That foreboding creeps further, everyone's hair standing on end. The darkness around each corner reveals new horrors, some of the bodies even head-shot in place. Without the masks the whole place must smell like old, musty death. More than 100 people must have lost their lives in the stairwell alone. When they reach the bottom, about twenty floors below the surface entrance, the air is cold around them and the whispers continue at the edge of hearing. But there is a single black doorway ahead of them, emptying into a large space.

"You're all hearing that, right?" Gray asks before making another comment for the camera. "Think I'm hearing voices but it's like I can't quite hear them. Hard to explain, no visual contact with anyone alive.". He pauses. "What are our orders if…uh…we can't get around the bodies?"

TAs the last one down the stairs, Kapali is particularly loathe to just leave the door unguarded, she turns to call that question ahead to Randy but stops, the breath drawn in to voice the question, but lets it die, unspoken. She eyes the door, longer than necessary, then rests one hand carefully on the door for another moment then continues forward, following the footsteps of everyone else following in Randy's footsteps.

"You can get around them," Randy says sternly into the coms, jaw set as she trains her mind on the task at hand. She moves fluidly and carefully, but slowly, planning each step en route and pausing around halfway to make sure everyone is close behind. Finally, when they get down to the black doorway, she sets the black case down and sits on it to wait for everyone to regroup. She doesn't get long. Her face is drawn and pale, her eyes two pieces of snuffed coal. She picks the case back up with her opposite arm and then leads them through the doorway.

Angelis is totally quiet, after that whispered question, not another sound comes from her, even her booted feet don't make much sound. Not that she can hear, anyway, but maybe that's just the atmosphere in general. She keeps her fingers firmly wrapped around the torch and the strap of the backpack, eyes roaming constantly. She breathes slowly through her mask, keeping it measured, careful, even as the horror weighs down on her shoulders, threatening to crush her into the ground. Once she reaches Randy, she looks at the Senior Sergeant, blue eyes wide and - well, not frightened - but maybe more horrified, or curious and saddened by the carnage. Then slowly blinks and follows her through the doorway.

Reaching the bottom, Kelsey has to wipe at her eyes and take a forceful swallow. She did her best to not look at the bodies on the way down. Its too much in some ways. There's too much emotion swirling around her and it takes grit to signal for the entry and then a move right. "You can get around them. Kapali, move us to the location." And yeah, its clear by the look on her face she can hear them.

When they move through the doorway, they can immediately tell its a cavern by the way their footsteps echo on the concrete floor. The crunch of depleted brass underfoot. The skittering a few with some mass still to them. As the lights sweep, they get a full scope of just what they are standing in. The landing they are on is about ten feet to the railing - which is broken like something crashed right through the metal posts and railings. Beyond them, its a command floor. There are rows of computer consoles set up with labels in foreign languages. Bodies litter the floor out there, but quite a few of the dead are sitting at their posts. They died doing their jobs with their last breaths. Several of the consoles look like they were used for fighting positions and are blown to hell by gunfire. On the furthest wall there are three very large blank display screens. Six beneath look much smaller. Just under the screens is a small pile of bodies at the front, all heavily armed and armored. Maybe a hundred more died here, most of them fighting. Some refusing to quit their posts in their last moments, bodies slumped forward. Every single one of the living people down here can feel hands on their shoulders and arms. Shoulder to shoulder. Brothers and sisters in arms. Its a tomb in every sense.

Leading to the right is a meeting room. The door has been blown off and is laying on the floor. The table has been turned sideways on its side with all the furniture put up in front of it. Behind the table are eight bodies that died here in a last stand. Two bodies, a male and female, are holding each other with the females head still being held and protected from the incoming fire. The bodies in here are just riddled with holes. But Kappa knows which rug to look under.

Gray continues in, taking occasional slow looks back and forth yo try and track where shots would've gone. The sadness of the situation hits him as much as he tries to shrug it off… particularly as they make their way into the meeting room. The last stand in there definitely affects him and he shudders at the sight.

"In here," Kapali says as she moves, carefully, past each person in their unit before returning to the room that she'd visited only the once before. She retraces her own footsteps, whether deliberately or out of the path of least resistance, her expression carefully shuttered to the point of being almost, but not quite, empty. It's the look in her eyes, the look that she sees in the eyes of the others, without even having to see her own face, she knows what's in her eyes. With care, she takes a knee beside the remains of the rug and, with gloved hands, eases the edge of the rug upward to reveal the dimly lit key pad.

Randy turns to signal for Kapali to come forward, "Sergeant. Lead us to the hatch." As Kapali leads them, Randy is close behind. When they get into the room with the hatch, Randy sets the black case down. "Theoretically we shouldn't need these but…but there's no such thing as theory when you're dead." Kapali knows the mindset. Paranoia is an EOD's best friend. Some call it instinct, but at these levels of creep-factor, it's probably hard to tell the difference between the two. She runs some tests on the keypad panel with various equipment and sets up a device that will allow her to punch the keys in without touching them directly. "Kapali, secure everyone while I enter the code? LT?" She searches the room for Kelsey, presumably for the code.

Upon entering that room, Tabi freezes, she stares at the pair, her eyes wide and after a moment, she begins to move again, sidling up to Gray, "Uh…. Gray?" She murmers, just loud enough for him to hear it's her, before her shoulder bumps against his arm and holds there. Like she's needing contact with someone who's actually alive. Though she doesn't actually look at her fellow Marine, eyes roaming the room, her torchlight a bit shaky, like the rest of her. Angelis does her best to keep her breathing steady, and her emotions in check, because right now is /not/ the time to have a full on meltdown.

Rising to her feet again, Kapali shares a single nod with Randy, she turns to the rest of the group and waves Tabi and Gray back, retreating several healthy steps as well. "Not even sure if there IS a minimum safe distance, but lets give Randy some room to work," she advises and moves as far back as the walls will allow.

Gray leaves one hand on his rifle as Tabi sidles up to him, reaching back to her and offering a hand. He's breathing steadily as well. "Yeah, Tabi…" Pause. "I'm here." As they're directed to back up, Gray leads her back…just in case. He's already got ideas as to things to examine on the way out, he's got the whispering at the back of his mind that he can't shake…and there's the raw emotion of the place. So if Tabi offers a hand, he's going to hold it a lot more firmly than his demeanor might make her expect.

Kelsey moves in behind the others and looks around before forcing herself to look back out of the room, out the shattered glass and towards the command floor. Just by looking at where her light is shining, people can tell she's looking at a pair of uniformed people who are slumped at their consoles, one of them still holding a phone to his head. Her hand reaches into her gear and hands off the paper to Kapali. "Open it." That voice is very quiet.

Randy waits for the paper to be delivered to her and for Kapali to give her the code. She looks down at the paper and then focuses her light down on the pad so it won't move while she works. Her breathing slows as she moves the telescoped stick ever so carefully. This is what the EODs are for. Even if Randy hasn't been in a tight spot like this in the field recently, her mind is clearing, following its training. She takes a deep breath as she poises the device over the keypad. She moves the device through the pattern she's going to have to take twice, then settles. Finally she starts to punch out the code, keeping each press within three seconds of each other, counting under her breath as she goes, sticking to the rhythm.

Angelis wasn't expecting an offered hand, but at this point, she's not going to say no to it. Unwrapping stiff fingers from around the strap of her backpack, she drops her hand, taking Gray's and holding on tightly as they move back to the wall. Tabi's eyes move between that couple, and Randy, back and forth, back and forth. She shivers again and her torchlight matches the movement. She doesn't say a word, mostly because just breathing is proving to be slightly problematic right at the minute, her shoulder just presses against Gray's arm and there's another murmered prayer, just under her breath.

Gray mutters a prayer to Ares as well. And another quick one to Athena while he's at it. He also generally tracks Tabi's glance, momentarily wondering if they're going to end up like the couple in a few moments. Deep breath. Deep breath.

The code entered as given, there's nothing for a second. The red light flashes twice, then turns green. inside the door, there's a heavy Thunk. A click and the door hisses and slowly pushes itself open n hydraulics that groan and squeal with the age. Inside is a black box with plugs running from it to the side of the safe. The whole interior of the save looks to be a Faraday cage, too. But the box is warm, like its 'On' or there is a charge running through it.

Beneath them there begins a low hum. Down on the floor a green light flicks on by the breaker boxes Randy saw her first time in here. Then another one. Just the two. Something may be happening.

Randy backs up immediately when the door begins to hiss, coming out of her crouch and dropping the stick out of the way as soon as she's entered the code. She keeps herself between the hatch and the others, even though it won't do anything if something goes sideways. It's instinctual. Once the door is finished opening, she tentatively moves forward and looks down in the hatch. She moves over to her black case that's been left open. The way she moves around it, everything has its place. She gets out some kind of hand-held device that Kapali would recognize as a laser temperature reader and the humming starts. More things start. Randy only pauses for a moment. "I would advise everyone to make their own decision /now/. Go or stay." She then goes /back to the hatch/ to take a reading off the box. "Temperature is about 80 degrees," she let's the cam focus down on her reading and takes a snap while it's still recording. Then she slides the gadget away into a spot on her chest rig. She's staying.

"Within normal range for a storage device this size," Randy notes for the record.

Kelsey looks back to the hatch as it opens and stands there. She just watches it and Randy as the Sergeant moves. She doesn't get anycloser, but its clear the pilot isn't going anywhere just yet.

After handing over the slip of paper, Kapali turns slowly and moves so that she can see through the door back into the main room. "Make sure that your GoPro is functioning properly," she advises even as she takes a knee, crouching just to the side of the doorway itself, on point.

Angelis shifts away from the wall when that humming starts under their feet, and instinctively moves slightly /in front/ of Gray. Though she doesn't let go of his hand. Then she plants her feet and tilts her chin at a slightly stubborn angle. Nope, this Marine's staying put. No matter what.

Gray takes up a position behind Tabi as she slides slightly in front of him, still holding her hand. Nope, they're not going anywhere…after what he's seen and what he's heard over the last few weeks, he'd probably chase answers into the face of a Cylon firing squad. He mumbles another prayer looks on. "Computer system…frak, it seems operational. I'm staying. Let's do this."

There's a sudden light in the main command room and the main screens flicker on. One of them pops and fizzles, sparks falling. The other crackles and there's a face on the screen except for a big block of dead pixels at the top left. The man is in his late 50's and looks very fit by the way his upper uniform fits. There's a dark green coloring with a nametag on the dress uniform and stars on his epaulettes. Much like talking to the Captain, his lips move but the voice comes across the small office room as if he were standing there, speaking to each in their native language. There's no visible source to the voice, though.

"If you are seeing and hearing this, then the war was lost and likely our whole planet perished in the onslaught. This recording has been made in the hopes that maybe some other race or other humans will eventually find this and learn of what happened here. And that they will learn the lessons we so painfully did not heed." There's a breath taken. "For the last two years we've been fighting the machines. We fled to this planet two millennia ago, looking to hide from our own inventions - rogue AI. Over time, most began to treat the truth as legend, nothing more. It was a story told to children about the dangers of dabbling where they should not. I told the story to my own children. It was not a story." He looks down, thinking as he rests his hands on the desk in front of him. Maybe a prayer. Looking back to the camera, "Some forward thinking people in the military refused to believe it was a story. They created the Lines - artificial people. Hundreds of thousands of people volunteered to participate, to have their memories digitized and put into them. They were designed to be the best of us. They were assembled into units and pushed out into space in a small fleet. They made up parts of our militaries. They became just like us. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters. Their orders were to protect us and explore the stars, to find us a new home should the machines find us again, and if they found trouble, to engage and destroy."

"They found them. The machines had already expanded and were hunting us. They'd never stopped. We got enough warning to mobilize. Sixty one days and nine hours, twelve minutes until the first nuclear weapons hit. They dropped our major cities first, then invaded with ground troops. Things have stayed conventional for the most part, but we are losing badly. Best guess is we've got another eight weeks before they get to this site. We're the last remaining command bunker." He looks up past the camera, nods, and then looks back. "The President's last order to me was to leave this. It's a data arc. The Lines found someplace. A refuge. But we can't get there. We have no way off the planet and past their defensive lines. All we have is a location, and it is across occupied space as best we can tell, but quite distant. All we have is coordinates. Nothing more. If you survived the war, that is our rally point. Get there."

The unnamed guy looks at the camera with a steel gaze. "Do not research AI. Do not pursue it or it will pursue you. We already know we aren't the first to succumb to this. Its all happened before and it keeps happening again and again. Break the cycle. Kill them. Do whatever you have to." A glance and a hand moves to type something on a screen. "Take the drive this is on. I'm including known star systems and our best intelligence on the enemy and force dispositions. Ship identifications and pictures of what they look like. But you are not alone out there. You never were. If you encounter them, fight to win. For us."

The image goes blank.

Kelsey turns to look at the screen, stepping back. She blinks and then the voice registers. She watches with wide eyes, staring, lips parting. There's no way. When its done and they are plunged back into darkness, Kelsey just breathes, "Zeus' Almighty Shit. Randy.. get the drive," she whispers.

Whatever Tabi was expecting to happen… that face up on the screen, talking at her in her own language, was /not/ it. She just stands there, eyes wide, barely breathing as all the information is disseminated. She's dead silent, even after the recording is finished with, she struggles to wrap her head around the words, and the implications of those words. As the screen goes dark again, she rocks back on her heels, bumping into Gray, then bouncing forward, head shaking a little.

Randy doesn't say anything. She watches and in the first few moments, she scrambles to get her headcam to focus down on the recording. When it's all over, she actually has to be told by Kelsey to get the drive before she moves. She walks back over and looks down into the safe. Then she angles her head to make sure she can see how it might be attached and the right way to pull it. She might as well be performing surgery for how delicately she pulls it away. Slowwwwwly. Slooooooooooooooowly, not wanting to damage any connectors.

"…please tell me we got the whole recording." Gray mutters before looking over the situation in his mind and assessing it. "Dear frakking Gods on Kobol…" He swallows hard. "So they /were/ human. And yet…" He shakes his head. "/Another/ planet of them. Us." Beat. "How many planets /have/ we built out?" Glance to Kelsey. "Sir, if I'm remembering right this happened 3000 years ago. 3000 plus 2000 is 5000, right?" He holds Tabi's hand tightly still. "Sir…that means they fled /their/ home planet before the 13th Tribe left Kobol, right?" Some of this is 'for the camera', but…

The moment the image comes on, Kapali changes her position relative to the screen so that the GoPro mounted on her helmet gets the best visual of the audio and visual. She holds as still as possible as well, making sure to do her level best to keep the image from jostling or messing up the feed. Only when it's done, utterly done and she's filming nothing but blank screen does she rise to her feet again. "I have it, for certain," she says as she turns, again, carefully, and watches as Randy works to extract the drive. Slowly. With care. Precision. No dropping the nuclear football and all that.

"Kapali, get me an anti-static sheathe and the hardcase. I emptied out a bunch of crap to make room for it in the big boy there. Just look in the bottom under the tray," Randy says as she holds the drive in one hand. Her EOD gloves already have a grounding wire built in and are anti-static material, fingerless though. With the other hand, she reaches down in to check the wire while she's waiting. Is that going to be an easy pull?

Kelsey looks down, then back slowly. There's a nod of her head. "Yeah. I think so. These people had been dead a thousand years before we arrived on the Colonies. Assuming Kobol ever existed. This is- I-" She shakes her head a moment and looks down to the drive as Randy unplugs it. "Marines," she address with a fairly serious if quiet air. "Safeties off. If you are not loaded, load the rifles. This is to be delivered to Major Elias Gray, Flag Intelligence, personally. There are no stops. There is no visiting the restroom. We do not stop for anyone except the Admiral. If someone gives you an order, I'll deal with them, you continue moving to Deck Two, Map Room. This does not get turned over to anyone else except the Admiral and I'm authorizing lethal force. That's a direct order from me." A JG is ordering them to ignore all lawful orders to deliver this. "Does anyone here think I am attempting to be funny? …No, I hope not."

Turning slightly as Gray mentions all that additional information, Tabi just looks at him a bit stupidly. "I think my brain just broke." She mutters, more to herself than anyone else in the room. Angelis looks away then, shifting her attention to the delicate operation being performed by Randy across the room. She doesn't move over there to see what's going on though, apparently rooted to the spot. Then Kelsey's snapping out orders and Tabi's jumping to it. Untangling her hand from Gray's, she does a quick once over of her equipment, then sets her rifle to red, standing to attention. Mostly just feeling relieved to be thinking about something else, other than what happened here.

Moving almost as soon as Randy is done speaking, Kapali takes a knee, again, this time to open the hard case and extracts the anti-static sheath and carries both with her to where Randy is. The sheath is offered to Randy, carefully opened and angled towards Randy to receive the drive. "Faraday cage shielding, some sort of renewable power source, it's genius. Absolutely timeless, genius." She flicks a look toward Kelsey then nods, once, a single down up of movement. "ElTee, are you signaling ahead or are we just rolling?"

As soon as the orders start flowing, Gray nods and snaps into action. "S…sorry." Gray sighs. "I'll…I can explain it later." He nods to Kappa's comments. "Thank the gods they came up with it." He's swarming with questions that he has to basically suppress for the time being. He moves to take up a security position as the drive is retrieved.

"Yes sir," Randy replies sternly, still on her knees. With two hands occupied, she can't shoot anyone yet, but she sure sounds ready to for the mission. It's a chilling response as there is no hesitation. Randy angles towards Kapali and carefully maneuvers the drive into the anti-static sheath. She seals it, and then places it carefully in the smaller hardcase that was brought. "Kapali. I need to to carry that mamba case back for me and spot me." Kapali would know what this means. "Guys I need physical protection. Not just from people who want to do harm. No one can approach this case. If it gets wiped, humanity could very well be hosed. Do you understand me?" Arc. There's a flicker in Randy's mind as she flashes back to Libran…that night, the Five. The word. She doesn't wait for an answer. She expects them to fall in line. She secures the wire in the corner of the case in the cell padding and then closes it. Then she sets a combination. "I don't want some dumbass grunt running into me on their nightly run through the corridors," which is just an example and obviously she's going to take the most direct route there. She gets up off of her knees and then leans over to pick up the locked case.

"We've got no radio reception down here. When we get to the Raptor I'll call ahead for priority clearance and emergency vectors. CIC knows where we are. They'll know what to do." Kelsey looks back to the command floor. She slowly goes to attention lifts a hand and salutes as if she were at a funeral. "Thank you, sir." The jig then turns and moves for the door after her salute drops.

Angelis bites her lip as she recalls something and looks around, her eyes landing on the bodies. Then she looks to Kelsey. "Uh… Sir…?" She asks, tentatively, "What about the sheets you gave us?" Her gaze flicks over to Gray and she nods to him, silently accepting that he's going to explain things later. And despite the question, she's not about to step out of line as she gets ready to fall in with Gray, providing security.

Taking up a relative and precise proximity around Randy, Kapali clears the area around with a careful but complete arc, rifle already slung around, aimed down at the floor at the moment, but already having switched the selector to burst. "Someone needs to take point and get this convoy moving," she says in a voice that is low and utterly serious.

Randy pulls out her sidearm and flicks the safety off. She makes sure that Kapali and her haven't left any gear behind and then she confirms, "Ready to go sir. I'm going to be middle. Kapali's on me. LT, if you would take point please. Angelis, you're bringing up the rear with Anderson."

"No sheets. We have what they wanted us to find. If someone comes back here, they can bring them. We've got a mission to accomplish." Kelsey removes the pistol from her vest and chambers a round. There's a quick nod to Randy, "On me." Kelsey holds the pistol in her hand and starts walking with a purpose. …Did Kelsey find closure? She may have found something better.

Gray takes a deep breath. "I'm on it." He slides into position in the back of the group and begins scanning in front of them. "Moving when you are, Flynn. Tell me when we're good to go." He's already scanning for a path for his steps so he can avoid stepping on any bodies. That is still, as far as he's concerned, a standing order unless contravened. Hard dive or no hard drive he doesn't want to start an incident.

Angelis nods silently to Kelsey, then falls in with Gray at the rear. She keeps her rifle pointed to the ground, for now, but it's ready to swing into action at the first sign of trouble.

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