genessia | Operation 8

Entry tags:

Operation 8 | [Video]

[Private Action]

[Oh, how he never wanted to open a subarchway of his own... but, well, he had to break down and do it. With Ivina gone, easy access to what could be considered his secondary "blood" was gone, and he needed an alternative. With highly stressful situations meant burning through that source a lot faster, which was going to cripple him extremely quickly. Unfortunately, he had to swallow his pride and get it done. He gave up a memory of great importance for it, but... he was never going to see her here, and he'd rather stay alive. And carry out the other plan he'd been contemplating for a few months now. Orlok wasn't going to be his only alter ego for much longer.

He'd spent several hours in the newly opened Hiltraud subarchway in the middle of the night, decked out in his usual purple pilot gear. Thanks to his time with the Dulvik Organization (at least that group was good for something), he had easy access to a map of the city and its facilities on his visor's HUD. There was no doubt that he would potentially run into a few agents, but this wasn't the real Hiltraud, so it's not like he had anything to fear from the Organization here. He could mentally thank them, since they made not only the maps possible, but he knew of what they were making in that R&D department there. His two primary targets: lucemite crystals, and a holographic device that would allow him to change his appearance. Eichhorn would never release that to the public even if their very existence depended on it, so he had to get them the hard way. He was tempted to steal a Berkut-7 while he was there, but... he'll consider something for a joyride later. He'd always wanted to try one of those new-fangled fifth generation Alterna Frames.

Under the cover of night, with a few well timed 'power outages' here and there (courtesy of a little lightning magic), Gale had easily broken into the R&D facility and gotten to his target. Retinal scans weren't even a problem, all he had to do was whack some unsuspecting scientist and use their eyes to get through. After that it just came down to stealing that device and a bunch of crystal. And by a bunch... he means an entire container of them. He didn't like taking the raw crystals, but he wasn't gonna spend the extra time to see if there were already batches of them melted down. He can do that himself later - Genessia had enough facilities that he was sure he could find someone to melt them down for him.

Getting out was a little harder, but still relatively easy. Escaping came down to jumping out a window and using ice and wind magic to carry him to the ground safely. Escaping swarms of alerted soldiers? Not quite as easy, but still plenty easy thanks to a little extra magic. They could still barely see him though, and that's what he was banking on.

He'd spent five hours in that place, and it'd just get past the sixth by the time he rolled out of the subarchway and back into Nova City. Mission accomplished.]

[Video]

[The feed would come on and show Gale staring at his laptop screen with a poptart hanging out of his mouth while he focused on typing something. His eyes squinted at the screen before he reached up and took the poptart in hand, biting off a piece and glancing at the screen. If something looked closely, there seemed to be a plastic box of glittering rainbow colored crystals sitting beyond his laptop.]

Alright, so, I've got a couple inquiries to make here. For one, any of you technical geniuses got a voice changing device? Somethin' small, discreet, incredibly difficult if not impossible to discover? I need one for an upcoming bounty. If I don't have one, well, eh... it's gonna be a little more complicated than I'd like.

[Okay, so maybe he didn't need it for a bounty, but hey, no one needs to know what it's really for.]

Bonus points if you tech guys know anything about cybernetics 'cuz I think my metal bits are gonna need a tune up pretty soon, and my basic maintenance knowledge can only carry me so far.

Second, anyone know a place where I can get some crystals melted down? Weird request, but it's pretty important.

[He ponders a moment, before he faked an innocent expression as he glanced off towards the side.]

Oh, by the way... there's a new subarchway in Nova City? If any of you got any interest in goin' into it, bear in mind that they might be a little... on edge, shall we say.

After Life crew, I might be in late tonight. But I'm sure I can trust you guys to hold down the fort... right?

[That might be a menacing glare at the screen. You guys better not break things.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ooh, interesting. [He claps his hands together, excited.] It'll be my first time through a subarchway! Very interesting. I'll get to see what life on the other side is like. Alright, that'll work. I'll meet you there?

Well, I'll apologize in advance that it's not exactly the best city in Celveryia to visit but it's not bad.

[Though he'll have to fight the temptation to steal an alterna while he's there.]

So I'll see ya there. Thanks, Allen.

[He even remembers your name!]

No worries. I'm still looking forward to it.
[He's surprised at Gale remembering his name, but he smiles. At least he'd left his mark, in one form or another.

He'd take off from work toward midday after wrapping up his shift to run by a couple of hardware stories and grab some raw 'materials', anything aluminum or metals, saw blades, screws, nuts, bolts, wire/chain cutters, so on. Anything he could melt down as needed, and reconfigure into what Gale needed. A voice modulator was relatively small, but pretty advanced, so he made sure to get plenty of copper too, for circuitry, and the like- rubber to coat and insulate the soft metals.

It took a couple of hours, but around 6pm he would be making his way toward the new subarchway, looking forward to seeing what laid on the other side.]

[In the meantime while waiting for Allen, Gale had gone back to Hiltraud to secure a place that they could do their work. As he'd expected, the security seemed a little tighter, but only closer to the military affiliated buildings. Finding a relatively empty warehouse wasn't too difficult in such a large city, especially one secluded and away from any potential issue from the military.

He'd be back in Nova City by the time Allen was arriving. He could be found in front of the subarchway, casually lounging on his motorcycle and lazily kicking his legs in the air. He was flicking through notes on his videophone when Allen showed up, Gale glancing up from his spot.]

Hey. Glad you could make it so quickly.

[He'd expected having to wait a couple days before they could meet.]

I have a lot of free time. [He laughs, before looking up at the arches of the well... subarchway, and then down to Gale, furrowing his brow.]

So are there rules to this, or anything in particular I need, or...?

Other than your pendant to get through, nothin' you need. But since you got here I already assume you have that.

[He sits up on his bike, tucking away his videophone into his pocket.]

Security's a little tighter in the place due to a recent... incident, but so long as y'don't do anything to catch the military's attention, you're good.

[He reaches into his jacket's inner pocket and pulls out a slightly battered photo of two uniformed women and shows it to Allen.]

Buuuut, if you happen to see these two ladies about? We gotta bail. Can't say they'd likely react too well if they saw me.

We're not about to do anything illegal here are we, Gale? [He chuckles at his own comment, and looks up from the photo.] Well, it's for a good cause, I hope. I'll keep my eyes out for them. I can only imagine what you did to get on their bad side, though.

Military, huh? I wonder where we're going, exactly. Well, I have my pendant at least. [He briefly brings it into view- where it's been tied around his left wrist by his chain, just so he can always keep track of it.]

[A grin comes to Gale's face as he gives a wink.] Don't you worry. I already did the illegal thing. You're in the clear.

[He does hesitate a moment before putting the photo back away in his pocket. His usually smug grin was briefly replaced with a solemn smile before he shrugged, the smug air returning.]

I'm not really on their bad side. It's an awkward story, I can explain when we're in the city.

[He hops off his bike, looking towards the subarchway.]

We're headin' to Hiltraud, the capital city of Eichhorn. Big industrial city, pretty much the world's center of tech, got a big AFB nearby. It's also where their bitchy president hangs out, so you can imagine how much security they'd have 'round important buildings.

[He seems to perk up at 'industrial city'. There's some things he'd like to pick up while he was in town, if that was the case... he didn't exactly have access to his ship, or any of his resources here in Genessia, but he could fix that with the right connections. He'd have to see what he could do about that once he was done helping Gale.]

Then that explains why you chose here in particular. An industrial city on the forefront of technology would have everything you'd need to keep your body in working order, huh? Alright. I can run with that.

I can't say I'm exactly a fan of this particular place, but... well. Unfortunately, it was the best of the three options I had to obtain lucemite. It helps that this is the place that had somethin' else I needed, which ties into the voice thing.

[And as far as Gale was concerned, Allen could do whatever he wanted in the place when they were done. Hiltraud was only here now for Gale's convenience.]

Anyway, let's not waste any more time in this place, shall we? We got things to do.

Alright, let's get moving. I'll expect you to be a good guide, I'm new here, after all. [Despite that, Allen approaches the archway first, gripping his pendant in one hand, and his plastic bags worth of goodies in the other.]

No problem. I've got quite a bit of "inside information" on the place.

[He wouldn't have been able to pull off the shit he did without it.

He'll follow Allen through the subarchway, and in an instant they're no longer in Nova City. While Hiltraud wasn't nearly as advanced as Nova City was, it was still easy to tell at a glance that the place was highly advanced. And for an industrial city, rather clean. If not blindingly so due to the sleek white buildings everywhere.

Gale himself would be momentarily distracted by the fly-by of two red and black colored Berkuts flying off towards the edge of the city. He adjusted his sunglasses slightly, musing to himself.]

Well, at least we don't have to worry about those two for now after all.

Souvenirs from that airbase you mentioned? [Allen takes a deep breath, getting a feel for the air, glancing around, looking at all the sleek buildings. Though it was lacking a little color and variety, he could get comfy here.]

This isn't a bad place at all.

[Lacking color and variety was right, but store owners seemed to try to mix it up a little with fancy holotech.]

Nah, the souvenirs are from the R&D facility. My information's from sources that I probably shouldn't say out loud now that we're here. I'm not sure how completely accurate these subarchways are yet.

[Hopefully not accurate enough that the security changes aren't permanent, but he was sure it was at leat accurate enough that he'd get mobbed if he mentioned the Dulvik Organization out loud.]

It's alright. Anyone associated with the government and military kind of have a stick up their asses, but I guess that's the norm for people with those jobs.

[He shrugs and starts walking ahead, waving for Allen to follow.]

I got a place set up for us that we'll be able to work. It's just a dinky old warehouse but it oughta do.

Oh, so those are the latest model they're gonna roll out, huh? [Allen says this while glancing skyward again, using one hand as a visor to shield his eyes from the sun, though keeping a steady pace after Gale while keeping his eyes on the sky, and on anything that would be flying by.]

That is the nature of the beast after all. The moment you're developing something new, someone else will try to steal your info, your tech, and beat you to the punch, to get the edge on you. The only reason you'd openly announce it is if you're either already done, you're bluffing, or you're VERY confident no one's going to outdo you.

A warehouse should be fine, anyway, more than enough room to do what I need to.

Eichhorn's real weird about that. They're the ones that developed the alterna frames, but they've had collab frames with other countries, so everyone's got the basics to develop their own. Those two that just flew past were fifth gens, the Berkut-7. Which, luckily for me, those particular two are piloted by the girls I showed you, so I won't have to worry about runnin' into them yet.

[Gale leads him a little ways away from the center of the city. As they walked, there were a couple of fly-bys from squadrons of Fulcrums and an occasional circling from the two Berkuts again. Gale only glanced up at the frames occasionally before eventually stopping at a door to a relatively empty warehouse, pushing it open and looking back at Allen.]

Here we go. Nice and empty and away from people in here.

Question; What exactly are those girls to this base, exactly? Are they just pilots, test pilots, or something in particular? You made them out to be people you wanted to avoid and gave them an air of importance- I doubt they'd have generals and the like actually out in the field. So, who are they exactly?

[He raises his hand as he says this, like a student asking a teacher a question, but eventually lowers it, walking past Gale and into the warehouse, giving it a once over before making his way toward the center of the warehouse, where the sound was least likely to be heard and things were least likely to get scorched if something went wrong.

Once there, he dropped the bags of materials he brought onto the ground and started fishing everything out, pulling off plastic tags and covers to everything, making small stacks out of plastic waste and metal materials.]

Right, we should probably do the modulator first. C'mere a second.

Those ladies, my pretty white-haired friend, are two of this country's top aces. You meet Aeon in the skies, you're in for a load of hurt. I flew alongside them a long time ago. Before I was a cyborg.

[He lets out a heavy sigh as he follows Allen inside, crossing his arms behind his head.]

They're my sisters, Katherine and Ellen. Though now they go by Kira Hrivnak and Lilia Albrecht.

[He peers over and looks at everything Allen brought and tilted his head. He'd offer to pay Allen back for all those materials he just got, but he'd figured the offer would be brushed aside either way. He goes over to Allen when asked.]

Got it. Now what?

Why the change of name? [A beat.] Do they even know you're alive? Is that why you're avoiding them?

Also, don't freak out. [Allen reaches out and grabs Gale's chin, turning the man's head left and right, and then reaching out with his other hand, patting the circumference of his neck, before pulling both hands back.]

Hmm, there's more metal than I expected, but I should be able to work with this...

[As he says this, he makes his way back over to his gathered materials, planning to himself as he considers how to pull it all together. The larynx was mostly intact and that was the primary part, but if he could connect the modulator to his metal pieces...

As he considered his options, he extended a hand over the metal pieces, and like he showed Levy once before, began deconstructing them all, a powerful electrical current flowing down from his palms into the metal- which immediately liquefied it, all the raw materials he gathered melting down into a solid ball of liquid metal, which he began reshaping and reforming based on the calculations he was making.

He ended up only using about half the metal, the other half finally solidifying into a small, circuit-lined ball the size of one of those bouncy rubber balls, sitting in his palm. Standing up, he held it out to Gale, and said...]

Swallow this.

I imagine they probably changed their names because they think I'm dead. I took a hit for Ellen in an ambush that downed me so she and Katherine could escape. It probably didn't take them long to leave the Crystal Underground mercenary group after that. I may be alive, but given who I'm not affiliated with in this world, I'd rather they not know I'm alive.

[Sure, there was the part where the version of people here in the subarchway weren't the real thing... but it was real enough that Gale wanted to continue avoiding them regardless.

Gale had half a mind to jokingly scream like a little girl when Allen put a hand on his neck, but he'd probably best save the theatrics for when they weren't doing something secretive and when Gale didn't have a pouch of a couple lucemite crystals under his coat.

He looked over in curiosity and stared, partially in awe and partially in disbelief. He knew Allen wasn't human, and there was that whole 'shapeshifting' thing he did when they met, but the fact he could do all that with those materials without any tools was both amazing and kind of horrifying.]

Since you can do that kind of thing, remind me never to get on your bad side.

[Gale plucked the little circuit ball from Allen's hand and stared at it for a moment. He expected something external, but he did specify 'discreet', so...]

Glad I've swallowed things bigger than this before. [Whatever that means. He takes a moment, before doing as he was told and tossing it in his mouth. Never in his life did he expect to have to swallow a little metal ball.]

[Allen snickered at the comment, recognizing the innuendo when he saw it, but he made sure to remind Gale...] There will be some discomfort.

[Once actually in his mouth, the metal ball would start moving of it's accord- forcing itself down his windpipe, of all things, and briefly making it difficult to breathe while it settled in his trachea, the connecting pathway of the Larynx to his lungs, the metal ball expanding into a ring that would line the trachea's length. If his lungs and everything below the neck were as metal as he expected, it'd settle in and interface quickly, attaching to his metal parts and fitting itself in securely, without seeming as if it were a separate part from his cyborg parts. At least, not at a casual glance.

Once the moment had passed, Allen took another small sample of the metal to create a wireless antennae, and attached it to another small device he was creating from the plastic scraps, wires, and copper bits he had left over, eventually forming what was effectively a small remote with a dial, and a few buttons, that he held out to Gale.]

Twist the dial to adjust the pitch, use the little switch at the top to switch between 'save' and 'use' mode, and use the little buttons on the right to save and use voices you want to save or use in said modes.

At any rate, you don't have to worry about me. I'm mostly harmless. I mostly feel bad for you and your sisters. You did what you had to in order to survive, I guess.

[He figured there would be discomfort given the size of it, but what actually happened... nope, he didn't expect that at all. He instinctivly put a hand around his neck while the expression on his face was a mixture of horror and what could only be described as "I regret all life decisions all in this one moment."

Once it was over, he hesitated before he quickly shook his head and slowly pulled his hand away from his neck. He blinked and coughed once, trying to wrap his head around what happened.]

'Discomfort' is right. That is not something I ever expected to experience. [He glances over to the remote and takes it, looking it over and smiling a little.] Thanks a lot. You saved me a whole lotta trouble. 'least I can do is tell you what it's really for if you wanna know.

[He shrugs a little.]

Unfortunately, things like that just happen. Given that I'll likely inevitably fight them, it's better that they keep thinking I'm dead. It's depressing as hell, but I'd rather not give them more unnecessary trouble, y'know?

I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little curious. But... [He frowns, making a disgruntled noise.] I guess I understand your reasoning, but it also feels more cruel to have them realize you're alive again only to have them kill you. You don't think they could help you at all if they knew the truth?

[He stays quiet a moment, reaching into his jacket and pulling out his butterfly mask. He puts it up to his eyes, looking over the HUD to ensure that it was only him and Allen nearby. After a few moments and he was satisfied with the result, he lowered the mask and shook his head.]

Believe me, I'd love to just go back to them and have some kind of grand little reunion. Unfortunately, because of the guy that made me what I am now, I'm caught up with an organization that every country is making efforts to fight against and wipe them out. And these guys have agents everywhere, so if I did something like that, my sisters would be targeted instantly to make sure I stay obedient. So basically, my choices are paint targets on their backs to see them again, or let them fight "Orlok" in the air and not let them know I still exist.

[He let out a sigh, dropping himself onto a crate and resting his arm on another. He took another glance of the area through his mask.]

Anyway, the whole voice thing? I may have snatched a nifty little holographic device while I was fetching from lucemite crystals from the R&D facility. One that'll let me alter my appearance. With that, and a change of voice, I can potentially get myself involved in a few extra jobs around Genessia without anyone knowing of my involvement. Intel, espionage, extra bounties, that kinda thing.

Planning on playing the long con, huh? Well, don't do anything that causes too much trouble for anyone and we won't have a problem. Other than that, you can play spy all you like, I know there's all too many people who'd be willing to indulge.

...Well, your plan is solid, at any rate. You do what you have to without any unnecessary casualties. I guess in your mind, your sisters shooting you down would be the best outcome. Well, I'll hope it won't come to that.

[At that, Allen focuses his hand over the remaining orb of metal again, and reshapes it into a bucket- a metal kiln, even, with a single opening in it's side.] Well, let's see what we can't do about those crystals. Toss one of them in there and I'll see what I can't do about melting it down.

Video;

Video;

Video; Action

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;

Action;