"I don't know if you noticed, techy, but we're slightly bigger than you," Cypher said impatiently. "We don't fit on any of the paths up and the walls are too high to jump. We're either going forward or back." Cypher squinted slightly at the distant turrets, hoping that Derek just had really good eyesight and hadn't used the targeting scanners to spot them. He didn't want to be spotted now. Not when there was a potential trap ahead and not while they were so boxed in. One aerotech bomber and they were screwed.
He looked up and watched one sail overhead. They would have been spotted on radar as potential hostiles and were being checked out. The aerotech should not be able to get visual on them while they were standing still, the sand and the shadows would see to that. Still, he exhaled one of the more colourful swear words in the old tongue. "Disable whatever you can see. Don't set off anything and more importantly don't get dead," he said gruffly to Derek.
"Jeez, bro, go easy," Byte said good-naturedly, "first day on the job and all."
"Dire Wolf-01, arm your LAMs," Cypher responded brusquely, appearing to ignore Byte.
"Yes sir," Chip replied, hitting the button to arm the massive land to air missiles he was sporting. The guns whirred to life as Chip inclined the body of his mech upward, seeking out potential targets.
"Don't target anything yet. Longer we stay hidden the better." Cypher tapped a couple of buttons on his console, listening to the chunk of long range missiles loading into their launcher. He looked ahead, eyes trained for any form of movement, making sure that if anything felt so inclined to attack that none of them would hit the Battlesuit.
They had no idea what he was on about, Christmas-wise, but they got the circuit reference easily. It was a stupid way to wire a defence system and the techies at the Tir wouldn't be caught dead doing a job nearly that shoddy, but hey if the enemy was silly enough to do things that way, all the better for them.
"Yes," Cypher responded shortly to Derek's request about cloaking. As useful as techies were and as much as he appreciated the magic they would weave with machinery, they all seemed to have this incessant need to natter aimlessly, explaining everything to everyone within earshot. Just because they were in a sim didn't mean they could slack off, although the mech stars had been known to have LAN parties in the sim room. He stared at the wall they were heading towards. There was a door, there were turrets. Much like the Tir, raider bases tended to be built out of scrap. It was occasionally hard to tell whether or not the tech was good. Sometimes like the Tir things looked incredibly junky but worked incredibly well.
Cypher let his eyes go out of focus momentarily, then snap back. With the focus shift he suddenly saw the bucket walkers the raiders liked to use tromping up and down, keeping eyes out for things approaching the door. They hadn't seen them yet, apparently. Hopefully it would stay that way til Derek was done.
"Can you tell from here if there'll be any more?" he asked.
Even Derek could see the stupidity behind the defense circuitry and wondered if maybe it was a simple way of testing him to see if he could pick out even the simplest of layouts without any problems. However Derek wasn't about to assume that it was as easy as it first appeared. There had to be more to it...
"Affirmative" Derek nodded and tapped the key panel to activate his cloaking. Already he found himself feeling right at home and even showing off some of the typical techie traits. The thorough explination of every little detail so to make things clear to everyone, and at the same time show off their knowledge, and need to double check and make sure that their actions where not going to be a mistake they couldn't reverse. It kind of came with the feeling of being so much lower in rank to everyone else and being surrounded by superiors made a techie even as confident and bold as Derek cautious about their steps and actions.
"Not until I get closer to the wall" Derek explained as he began welding away at a small panel he managed to find, hidden well but not well enough for Derek to miss. "I'm going to assume though there will be. This is far too easy...It has to be a means to trick us into believing the base is a total blow off as far as entering and exiting is concern"
A few moments would pass before Derek finally announced "Done! Okay...the first set of trip wires have been disarmed. The second set, from what I can tell from where I stand, has to be right beyond the gates. Of course...we've now got those turrets to disarm. I'm going to head for the controls...if I can find them before the turrets find me"
"Ah shhhhiverboots..." Derek exhaled "Scans indicate the turrets are armed with an anti-cloak detector. That means the only way I sneak in stealth style is by disarming the panel...on the other side of the doorway. Crap..."
"Techy. Dock. Now." No more traps for a while was exactly what Cypher wanted to hear. Expecting that Derek would obey orders immediately, he targeted each turret in turn, loosing one LRM at each. The missiles left their launchers with angry hissing noises, like large furious digitised snakes. They left vapour trails, spiralling through the canyons.
The turrets went up in balls of flame accompanied by satisfying resounding explosions and showers of metal.
Cypher barked his next order. "Timber Wolf-02, go."
Byte didn't answer, spinning to face the door and kicking into high gear, her leggy mech sprinting past the others towards the base.
"But-" Derek had began to try and explain a few more details but quickly stopped as he heard what sounded to him like weapons at the ready, adding a quick and almost squeeky "Affirmative" and headed back to the mech, hopping up and docking this time with better skill than the first time, locking into place.
"Ouuu, firey brightness!" Derek grinned, failing to realize that what he just said would have been heard over the transmission until after he had said that, quickly clearing his throat to appologize. "S-sorry..."
Now Derek was starting to feel right at home, the action starting to take place. He scanned the area again just to make sure things where safe enough to head forward and so far hadn't detected anything of a threat anymore. The trip wires where gone and the turrets...well they obviously weren't a problem for them anymore thanks to Cypher's actions. But Derek knew on the other side of that wall was where their real problem and challenge was set.
"Just a word of warning" Derek began "Those turrets may be down but by now the entire group over that wall is probably alert. It's not like that firey display of brilliance was exactly quiet..."
Well, they would know they were there now, that was for certain.
"Incoming." Chip lazily targeted the bomber as it doubled back, and sent two LAMs after it. The first was dodged and exploded in the air, the second sheared off half the plane and that was enough. Chip emitted an entirely too happy sounding "WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" immediately joined by a undulating war cry from Byte and a very intimidating roar from Cypher, the noise they were making flooding communication frequencies and making it difficult for anyone on any frequency within range to be hearing anything other than the noise.
The two heavy mechs bounded forward, watching as the Timber Wolf ahead jetted sideways and then up, raining bullets down on the head of a bucket walker strategically located on a ledge, supposedly for the height advantage. The bucket walker's cockpit blew, with very little visible damage done to the chassis aside from soot and smoulder, and Byte's mech thudded down next to it.
"Nice work, sis," Cypher called, the smile evident in his voice. The area out here was less guarded. There were, as Derek had pointed out earlier, more of them through the door.
"Where's Cavalry Alpha when you need 'em," Byte said jokingly. The boys grinned quickly, each one of them hoping they'd hidden the concern over their higher ranking Starleader and missing starmate.
"Reckon you can open the door techy?" Cypher inquired, studying the door. They could blast through it but he was more interested in conserving ammo for the bad guys behind it. He leaned back and looked up, visually calculating the distance between the ledge Byte's mech was perched on and the top of the wall, a plan formulating in his mind.
Derek couldn't help but cheer along side the others, watching the fire works so to speak as he pumped his fist with a cheerful "BOOYAH!". But the party had only just began and so Derek returned to his mode of concentration, checking the scanners and making sure everything was fine and dandy. The last thing he needed was his cloak to suddenly fail mid-hack or for anything else in general to fail or go terribly wrong. Of course being as safe as one can be didn't mean they where completely safe.
Byte's move certainly impressed Derek and he watched with a blink or two at how quickly she managed to manuevor the mech. Derek knew just by moving the Battlesuit that it was hard enough to do that yet alone a much, MUCH larger mech. With a smirk Derek was obviously impressed.
There wasn't any time for compliments and congratulations however as Cypher's inquiry transmitted over the com. Tapping a few keys and performing another quick yet efficient scan Derek nodded before then giving his response with confidence.
"Sure, shouldn't take me too long" Derek began "Might wanna get a plan together for the big ugglies on the other side though" With that Derek hopped down from his dock, carefully scanning over the area to make sure the coast was clear before then making his way over to a large panel at the middle of the door.
"I'm sitting duck here" Derek began as he welded his way through the cover of the panel, snapping it off as he then proceeded to clip the neccesary wires "Normally it would be easier to hack this but figuring that we're short on time..." A loud *click* was heard before then with a smirk Derek added "We'll have to take a few short cuts. Doors are unlocked and ready to roll. When you're ready I can have the doors open. Might save you some ammo"
"Shortcuts are good," Chip said absently when Cypher didn't respond.
"You got Starleader watchin' your back down there. Anyone who targets you is a sittin' duck," Byte spoke up from the ledge.
"Timber Wolf-02," Cypher said, commanding attention again, "you jet up and over and start raining missiles."
Byte's holopic nodded. "Yes sir."
"How's your fuel?"
Byte glanced at her gauge, then looked up at the wall, running estimates in her head. "Should have a little bit left when I hit the top. More if I can make the jump I'm lookin' at without interference."
"Good. Try and land in the back and cut back towards us. Dire Wolf-01, we're cuttin' straight through. I'll take point, you take out the landing zone. I'll cut us a clear path."
"Gotcha," said Chip.
"Techy, reckon you can dock on the fly?" A part of Cypher argued that he was expecting way too much, wanting the rookie to dock to a mech moving at speed. On the other hand, the techy had proven plenty competent so far. Cypher had expected him to be a bloody good techy if Strike had assigned him to them, and hadn't been let down. He seemed to have gotten the hang of the mech all right. But still...
"Good to know I'm being looked after" Derek responded as he proceeded to scan the area again just to be sure things where at least safe enough, or that they where prepared enough, to proceed. So far, so good.
"You know..." Derek began to explain as soon as Cypher and Byte where done exchanging transmissions "Looking at the structure of the wiring I could of probably turned those turrets to our favour. Unfortunately they happen to be...well...dead. But in saying that there should be a panel to the right of the entrance, a short boost run away, that should I should be able to use to control any drones that I'm guessing they have. I'll need the time to hack this though which means...I'll need to exit the Battlesuit. Unless this thing has a way to fiddle with wires smaller than its fingertips so to say"
"Dock at speed sir?" Derek asked with some unsurity to his tone "Uhh...well I could try" Derek wasn't so sure he could manage to pull this off without screwing it up completely but being the brave heart that he is he nodded in affirmation to Cypher's request. Even if he was hessitant about the whole thing. "Sure, I'll move up to higher ground to better chance at landing. If the drones become a problem, because I'm picking up Drone Stations on my scanners just a few feet North of the entrance, I'll need to land and hack ASAP"
With that Derek began to move to higher ground, checking his surroundings and eventually finding a good enough spot. "In position and ready for take off" Derek transmitted, preparing his Battlesuit for the leap and land procedure, the booster jets humming into ready. "Cloak is currently in warm up" Derek added "Since I didn't use it for long it should only take about 15 min, tops"
For once in his life Derek found that he was starting to doubt himself. Not in that he was doing a good job...but that he was about to ruin all chances of ever becoming a true tech. Still, he wasn't about to give up. Derek rarely ever did, if ever at all.
"Didn't think they'd put a master rig for a drone out near an access point," Cypher commented, concentrating almost entirely on the surrounds and looking out for anything that might be targeting Derek. Still, the thought of a temporary army had appeal. "Youll only have to get out if the panel's lower than you can reach, otherwise just pop the cockpit. Virtual pop's the same place as you'd find it in the real thing, up front between yer legs." He smirked. "Unike the pop which opens the simn pod which is above and behind your head. Do want you want, but if I say break, you break."
Looking down at Chip's pic, Cypher ordered, "Cover the techy."
Chip touched his brow, concentrating on the surrounds and waiting for the door to open.
"Techy, we're launching the aerial attack a second before the door opens so we're going on your mark."
"You'd be surprised what you find these days" Derek responded with a smirk at Cypher's first response before then thinking more seriously as he listened to what was explained next. "Understood" Derek nodded, checking the mentioned area to find the right switch and the likes before then sitting up with another nod as he replied "Found it, should be all good. Hopefully there won't be a need for me to hop out which should save some time"
"Affirmative" Derek transmitted back as he began working on a second panel "So far the doors are locked and ready to open but I'm just making sure things are all clear...Just a few more clips here and one more tap theeeere...done!" Derek grinned as he added "Looks like I didn't have to worry about those drones after all. Managed to disable them, oddly enough, from the door. Don't ask what the point of that is but I'm guessing it has to do with when they lock the doors the drones recieve that message and activate. Gotta hand it to them...this has to be one of the most screwed up layouts I've seen yet surprisingly effect-...Oh yeah, I better move, huh?"
The triplets shook their respective heads at the same time and in the same fashion, it was kind of like watching the same thing in triplicate which was slightly creepy for those not used to it.
"I'm good to go," Byte said, the look of concentration settling over her again.
"Least you'll have an easier time gettin' back on," Chip observed, noting that the Battlesuit had climbed onto a ledge that was about the Dire Wolf's shoulder height. Chip was parked just behind the ledge Derek was standing on, Cypher standing on the other side behind the rock that framed the door so he wouldn't be an immediate target until he swung out when the doors opened.
"Ready when you are," Cypher said, eyes fixated on the door. "Count from three, Timber Wolf-02 goes on two."
"That answers my question..." Derek blinked as he took note of everyone's reaction, moving into said position and preparing for the leap. He made sure everything was ready and good to go, nodding to himself as he self confirmed things where set.
"Sure hope you're right Chip" Derek responded, exhaling in slight doubt in how successful this was going to be. But again he found himself having to push those doubts aside and concentrate.
"Affirmative, counting down..." Was Derek's response as he tapped a few more keys and flicked a few more switches and began counting down. "Doors opening in three...two...one"
The doors opened right on schedule, the sound of sliding metal enough to wake the dead, and Derek waited for the moment and the signal to leap. While at the same time watching out for any threats...
Byte went as soon as she heard "two" from Derek, the hypervoxel fire from her jets reminding them that at least they weren't really going to die should anything bad happen in the sim, the mech bounding from ledge to wall and wall riding up, scrambling over the edge. Immediately the sound of gunfire was heard as Byte descended on the other side.
The door opened to havoc as the Timer Wolf fell among the slightly confused enemy, who hadn't been anticipating an attack from above. Emitting his fearsome war roar, Cypher charged into the fray, his mech breaking into a run and cutting swaths through the disorganised raider ranks, letting off short range missiles and spraying bullets seemingly at random, yet everything seemed to be hitting targets. The Dire Wolf lumbered after the formidably ugly Atlas, slowing down slightly as it passed by the ledge where Derek crouched in his Battlesuit so the jumping on manuver would be less terrifying for the rookie. Chip motioned with his hand, not taking his eyes off the combat ahead and keeping one of them on the HUD.
Derek knew that though tempting as it was to leap into the mess of battle there was no way he was going to last very long armed with a few welders and a considerably smaller outfit. It would be like throwing an ant at an elephant, completely pointless and not to mention there would be no chance of making any kind of impact even if he where to bound literally right into one of the large mechs. And so he waited for the right moment to leap, deciding it best to obey orders and not be a hero, crouching down and waiting anxiously for the leap.
As soon as the signal was given Derek activated his boosters, taking a few steps forward to give him enough momentum to glide before then with a quick leap he dashed off the ledge, bashing down on one of the buttons on his panel to activate the landing boosters so to make the landing a little less rocky. At first Derek thought he miscalculated and would end up slamming into a bounce right off of Chip's mech and to his ultimate, explosive demise. Fortunately however he was mistaken and the landing went well.
"Phew!" Derek sighed in relief once he landed right on target "Man that was a rush...Frikkin' awesome!"
You could sense that Derek certainly had an enthusiasm for a thrill but of course Derek didn't spend too much time concentrating on celebrations since there where more important things to worry about right now.
"In position and ready" Derek confirmed, allowing his pride to hide the fact he nearly crapped himself in the leap and land.
"Good sh!t," Chip veered off to one side as soon as it looked like Derek was stable, loosing a tring of LRMs into the seething mass of raider machinery before them. Something blew up, eliciting a maniacal chuckle from Chip. Byte shot across their line of vision briefly before doubling back towards them, twisting left and right to scatter more bullets. One of her missile launcher "ears" was in tatters and the arm on that side was smoking, looking like was barely held on.
Chip turned side on to protect the Battlesuit, bullets biting into the shielding on the other side of his mech. "Gonna haveta do better'n that." One PPC blast later the tank that had fired the shot was a blackened husk and the immediately surrounding vehicles were on fire.
"Timber Wolf-02, rendezvous," Cypher ordered.
"Workin' on it Starleader," Byte was a picture of cncentration.
"Going," said Chip. "Hang on techy. Feel free to take target practice but don't fall off."
The brothers split, Chip with Derek in tow headed towards Byte, Cypher covering them.
"Just remember there's two of us here!" Derek spat out over the transmission, not really meaning to sound so blunt but when under fire, even in a simulated scenario, one couldn't really help but to feel some level of panic begin to rush into play. Even Derek, as bold and brave as he made himself out to be.
Seeing the damage on Byte's mech Derek was about say something about it and how it would be one heck of a repair job but before he had the opportunity to even say a letter of what he was thinking Chip's voice was heard and Derek's attention went back to the transmission screen.
"Sure" Derek began somewhat sarcastically "Maybe I could decorate your mech's interior with pretty little pictures using my welders while I wait" Obviously by that he was reminding Chip that all he really had where some welders. Then Derek had an idea. "Wait...Chip, how close can you get me to that mech giving us some issues? I have an idea..."
"You have a head laser," Chip reminded him, once more turning side on to prevent Derek from being hit by laser blasts. The arm on the side close to Derek whirred as it raised and fired off another PPC. The temperature jumped noticeably, which made one wonder just how hot it would have gotten if not for the heat sink. The bucket walker moved out of the way surprisingly quickly, or perhaps not so surprisingly. Adrenaline could do wonderful things when death was imminent.
Chip thundered in, picking off a couple more bucket walkers ganging up on Byte while Byte very casually crushed a tank.
"Head techy will be pissed with you," Chip commented.
Byte grinned. "In case you missed it, genius, guns on this side are rooted."
Chip pulled up, turning Derek-side to Byte. "Reckon you can fix it?" he asked, his additional height giving Derek a good look at the damage done to Byte's mech. "We'll cover."
Byte used her other arm to take out another mech. "Makin' it so it's not fallin' off and reconnecting the guns would be nice," she added.
When Chip reminded Derek of the head lazer his Battlesuit was equipted with his attention was drawn to the very thing that would switch that on and make it work and with a blink or two Derek casually gave his response. "Well would you look at that, so I do!" Derek replied, giving a small grin of glee. But that was quickly rubbed away when he reminded himself where exactly he was sitting.
"Well it sure beats what I originally had in mind..." Derek responded as he looked over the damaged once in a good enough position to at least get a good glance at it. "Sure" Derek then nodded "Should be no sweat. I'm going in"
With that Derek undocked and carefully prepared a tiny hop, using his boosters to stabilize the landing and then carefully make his way over to the damaged section of Byte's mech. Holding the section of which was about to snap off at any moment Derek carefully began clipping and welding things into place, stopping every once in a while to inspect things a little closer before then continuing to weld away.
Suddenly Derek felt his Battlesuit give a little shake as what appeared to be something loud and fast zipped past him and barely missed him by an inch, later revealing itself to be some form of rocket which collided with the wall some distance ahead.
"Oh snap! That was too close for comfort!" Derek blurted in a sudden moment of surprise, having also nearly fallen off it wasn't for the grips that where holding him on Byte's mech. Instead of wasting time worrying about a close call however Derek quickened his pace and hurried to repair Byte's mech.
"Nearly there...just a few more welds and it should hold" Derek noted, concentrating on getting the job done right. "Byte, what's the status on your damage control screen? Is it in the green?"
"Yellow. Weapons are back online which is what I was most worried about. How are my heat sinks?" Byte shot off each comment punctuated by weapon fire from the mech body and other arm.
The remarkably tall Atlas wandered past trailing a thick black cloud of hypervoxel smoke, loosing a series of missiles at a battery of jeeps. "Think they're about done," he commented. "How's your hacking skills techy?"
"I was hoping they'd be green by now..." Derek muttered though audioable enough for all to hear, welding away at a few more wires and such before then finally responding to Byte's question with a new born confidence.
"Heat sinks are good to go" Derek chimed with a grin-like smirk "Just be careful though, can't garantee your wing will stay on for long under constant use. So I don't need to tell you to use it wisely"
With another question thrown his way Derek turned his attention to it and gave a quick moment of thought to this before then with a nod giving his response fairly confidently enough. "Up to scratch" Derek began before adding with a small shrug "But that all depends on what you need me to hack and how long I have"
"Wouldn't be the first time I've lost it." Byte said. Cypher didn't have to say a word, the look was enough to get Byte cruising towards a blocky looking building set into the canyon wall. "Going, going." She put her foot down and her mech leaped into a run, turning broadside at the same time. The Timber Wolf didn't even come close to the Dire Wolf and she threw an arm up automatically to protect her face as a rocket ploughed into her good side, drawing a few choice words that any hardcore mercenary would have been proud of from her as the mech shuddered, skittering sideways from the force.
"Cover would be nice!" she yelled as Chip stepped in, terrifying her antagonist into fleeing. Turning to Derek, she said, "There's a mainframe in there somewhere that's going to tell us where the other raider bases are as well as supply depots and the like. Possibly other useful things like who's working for who and who's got bounty on who and stuff. You have until we tell you we need to bugger off."
Byte casually shot through the door of the base and strode right in. In the simulation there were a few little machine gun turrets and a marine platoon or two to take out on the way through. In the real world there would have also been random people running around. Most likely.
The mainframe room was less cramped than the corridors. Byte stood by, turning the mech to point down the corridor they'd just stormed down and rotating the upper body of the mech to look around.
"When you're ready," she said.
"I bet" Derek smirked but soon straightened his expressions as he took note of that he was wasting a bit of time right now. And so hopping off and to safe point as quickly yet as carefully as possible Derek prepared himself for whatever was to come next. And by the looks of things it was going to be an awesome ride. In either sense of that word really.
There wasn't much time for Derek to re-dock as it stood at that current point in time, Derek having to dodge a second missile that managed to slip by Byte as she blocked the first one, time feeling like it slowed down in the process and Derek could of sword he watched the missile pass him by with ripples in its path.
"Whoa! Second time lucky" Derek exhaled in relief "Let's just hope they don't have the third times a charm kind of luck"
Shaking off the shock of the moment Derek quickened his pace and proceeded to follow the lead into the base, a brief nod given as the answer of his question was recieved along the way. "Consider it done" Derek began "I'll hack into the mainframe and grab all the info I can"
Once in the base Derek waited to recieve the word to continue on and with another nod Derek affirmed he got the message and activated his cloak, slipping through the coridor and heading in the direction of where he assumed the mainframe would be.
Some moments later...
"Derek here. Found the mainframe core and proceeding to hack..." Derek transmitted after what felt like an eternity. But he had to play it safe and though at the same time had to be quick about things he didn't want to have the mission come to end now that they got so far.
"Okay, so far from what I can there's a few suppy depos at the north, east and south west end of this base. Mainly ammo and extra weapons of doom. There are a few patrol squads scouting the entire perimeter, moving from left to right and continuing their rotation accordingly. Hmm..." Derek continued to work his magic, taking him a few moments at first but eventually he got what he was after. It seemed Derek certainly knew how to hack. "Aerial patrols are scheduled for every hour so we should have about twenty minutes before they send out the third patrol squad there. So far from what I have there's a second and third base located a few kilometres away from each other. I'm sending you all the cooardinates now. Oh yeah, and there's a vending machine in each of the lobbies too"
Derek couldn't help but to add a final touch of humor to what he had explained. Although lame as it was Derek had to keep his sanity somehow.
"Weeeell, well, well, what have we here?..." Derek smirked. "Looks to me like I found the big red button of doom. A.K.A "The Self Destruct Sequence". Popped up out of nowhere really"
"Can't you just plant a virus or something?" there was a hint of plaintiveness in Byte's voice. "If this base blows it'll take down a chunk of the canyon with it. There's already Plutarkians and Catatonians raping our planet, we don't need to add to it."
"Outside's clear," Cypher spoke over the comm suddenly. "Do whatcha wanna do and we'll meet up at Nav Zeta and call it a day."
"Yes sir," Byte said vaguely.
"Awww, no fireworks?" Derek began, almost in a child-like manner, exhaling deeply in a kind of sigh before then with a tone that showed he knew Byte had a point Derek went on to explain with a nod "Alright, I'll try and plant the virus"
"It will take me a few more moments to hack into the second stage of security" Derek continued as he went ahead to get right to work on messing up the system without blowing away half a canyon in the process "First stage gets you through to the info line, second stage gets you through past all the passwords and such, and finally third stage gets you through to the core. Sooooo, with a few more code edits and hack spikes I should get the virus planted and spreading in approximately 15 minutes"
Fifteen minutes seemed like an awful long time but you have to remember Derek has to hack into two kinds of coding in order to get through. And since he was low on hacking spikes he had to make do with what he had and do things the old fashioned way.
About seven minutes went by when Derek confirmed "Hacking into the core now..." and continued to hack as quickly yet effectively as possible. Three more minutes went by and at long last Derek sent out a second transmission with a proud and confident smirk.
"Not only did I just break my hacking record but the virus is in the core and spreading havock through the system as we speak. Getting to where we need to next should be a sinch"
"Nice," Byte said with undisguised admiration. "We'd be movin' on if this was a real mission and definitely if we had the rest of our team. Hop on unless you wanna walk."
"Thanking you" Derek smirked with a wink over the transmission, his confidence shining like new and he obviously was proud of a job well done. At least for the most part he hoped he passed.
"Yes ma'am" Derek then nodded with a salute, re-docking and then confirming "Re-docked and ready to roll"
Tempted as he was to ask how he was doing so far Derek imagined that everyone eventually would tell him in due time and when need be.
As soon as Derek had jumped up, Byte started striding out through the corridor. When the Battlesuit clicked onto the dock point, she pushed into a lope, the mech striding out into the open. She had heard the click but she glanced over her shoulder anyway for visual confirmation that the Battlesuit was locked into place. Tapping her console to get the coordinates for Nav Zeta. It required pointing the mech along the wall the base had been along, 90 degrees from the canyon they had walked in on. She aimed at it and pushed the mech into a run.
The medium weight, leggy Timer Wolf was much lighter and a lot faster than the Dire Wolf, and it felt like they were flying through the canyons. The hulking masses of the Dire Wolf and Atlas, both at full pace, materialised in the distance. And rapidly increased in size as the Timber Wolf thundered up and passed between them.
"See you outside, boys," Byte called cheerfully as they ate her dust.
The pod opened after the computer voice politely informed them that their mission had been a resounding success. Byte unbelted and hopped out, stretching her limbs, and then dashing over to Derek's pod to see if he could work out how to get out.
Even though it was all a simulation Derek had to keep reminding himself that that's what it was, a simulation, but that didn't stop the feeling of a mad rush and the joy of sitting back and watching the scenery fly on by until finally the simulation came to an end.
When Derek first returned to reality he had to sit put for a moment just to allow himself to get used to reality again, blinking some and rubbing his eyes for a moment before then working on the straps. Yet after all that success...Derek couldn't get the buckles undone.
With a light growl and a small curl of his lips Derek muttered under his breath "Give me something to hack or something to weld through and I'll get through it like nobody's business but give me a strap and Gods of Lupron help me if I can manage to get the damn thing undone..."
"Me thinks it be stuck..." Derek exhaled, noticing Byte rushing over toward him and trying to act cool and confident again. "Hey! Hehe...uh...just uh...sitting back, you know...just...taking a moment to settle...heheh...heh..." Derek grinned stupidly as he meanwhile thought to himself 'My God you're a tool...'.
Byte gave Derek a minute, then decided that Derek was having trouble and popped the hood. The door rose to reveal the Lupe struggling with the seatbelt and muttering to himself. Byte struggled to contain a grin as she hopped up onto the pod's platform. Grabbing the two shoulder straps she tugged down sharply and then hit the button to disengage the harness.
"Some of the harnesses are a bit gammy," she explained. "The sim pods themselves get fixed when the techies have time, most of them are working over the real mechs." The boys appeared in line of sight, looking disturbingly like mirror images as they were standing in very similar postures and they had their tails curled in opposite directions. The only thing that broke the illusion was what appeared to be their signature plait both hanging down the same side of their faces.
"So can we keep him?" Byte turned to Cypher, a smile playing on her face. Cypher looked over Byte's head to Derek.
"Get him rigged up," he said shortly. "We're on patrol tomorrow. You're all on standby til then." He flicked his tail and sauntered out of the sim room.
"Welcome aboard," Chip winked at Derek, coming over to stand with Byte.
"That's why I noted I could try and disarm the trips" Derek responded back rather bluntly and was about to add more to that but stopped once the aerotech bomber made its presence known. Derek sighed in relief that they hadn't been spotted yet but there was no time to argue a point. That and he had his orders to deal with.
Derek really had to hold his tongue and just do as he was told which was a task in itself. He wasn't used to being told what to do, being quite the freelancer and very indipendant type. But he couldn't afford to ruin this. At all.
"Affirmative, on my way" Derek responded as he made his way carefully down to the field, checking out the area and stepping out carefully to what he needed to work on. "Any need to activate the cloak?" Derek asked as he began to get to work, carefully welding his way through to whatever controlled the trip wire. "According to this if I deactivate just the one wire the whole thing will shut down. Basically this is running on a circuit, much like your standard Christmas lights. Take out one bulb and it's lights out for the whole circuit. Only trouble is we need to then get beyond that wall...which means I'll need to head in and see if I can find a way to disarm the defenses...Then I'm going to guess the door's locked too"
You ain't got a life 'til ya live it free!
(Thanks Nightbeat/Katana for Derek's picture! ^..^)