2014.10.12 Red Alert

Red Alert
The team arrives at the scene of a temporal anomaly.
IC Date	Stardate 27412.1
IC Time	Just before nightfall.
Players	Basilisk (NPC Ecko), Priest, Nagi, Monitor Y-91, Anne Alexandrov, Major
Location	The Holy Roman Empire, Franconia.
Spheres	Technocracy
Theme Song	http://youtu.be/_CTYymbbEL4

The Penitent Tangent This is a small scout class ship made as a forward observation post. It is little more than a compressed atmosphere a few beds and an engine bolted onto a sensor array. It is also your new home. The hallways are cramped the airlocks sometimes take two people to open and the engine room smells like burnt hair. Other than that though not too shabby!

---

The Penitent Tangent hovers out of sight outside the atmosphere of a planet that looks strikingly similar to Earth. There's no lights on the shadow side, no visible structures on the light side soit's a BORING versin of Earth, but it certainly looks like Earth.

"Thank you all for making it." Anne says, standing around the nav-bridge. Despite the woman's warior like build and stern expression she's still dressed very much like a lab geek. Hair tied up in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. In place of a labcoat, which has loose parts which might get caught up in Zero-G she wears a baggy jumpsuit, zipped up about half way because god dammit it's hot in here. I thoguht space was supposed to be cold! Oh wait no it's not.

Anne points to a spot on the map around what some may recognize as Germany. "This area is the most likely candidate for the source of the temporal divergence. I'm not a time motion manager so I can't be certain, but it seems the most logical source as the resonance creating the wave form that is about to collapse is most highly concentrated in this region."

Ecko looks close at the map. "Germany, cool. So Um. What sort of disturbances are we seeing here?" He asks.

Priest folds his arms up behind his back, keeping calm attention on the map, those shades settled over his eyes as he takes in the details

Standing in a simple, safety orange, skinsuit with black detailing up the sides Nagi runs her fingers through her purple hair and then folds her hands at her back. "Is this anomaly a danger to the present timeline?" she asks. She has the skills to BE a time-motion manager, just... wrong Convention.

Major is wearing a similar jumpsuit to Anne's but he lacks any sort of definition that would imply a 'warrior' vibe.

Monitor Y-91 senses "Anne supressing a snicker. "Please don't oggle the schoolgirl in a skinsuit dear.""

You sense Monitor Y-91 snickers in response. "Hey, I can't move your eyes for you dear."

Anne nods to Nagi's question. "Yes. Not a keter level danger of course, but there are two colonies within reach that will suffer an extinction level event should this wave form collapse abruptly." she responds, like that is going to make sense to anyone. "Command has tasked us with locating the source of the temporal disturbance and neutralizing it... there... really weren't many orders aside from this. I think before we go to decision making we should establish of chain of command."

You sense Monitor Y-91 speaks to her again. "I'm still running figures dear, I'll stay out of interaction until they land."

Anne nods to herself for absolutely no visible reason.

Major waves a hand. "I'm actually new here, with no field operations experience. I've hypercrammed German for this expedition, but I'm not sure how useful modern German will be."

Anne nods and looks to Nagi and Priest pointedly.

Priest shifts his weight a bit, eyeing the map "I won't be able to communicate with the locals. Don't speak german myself."

Ecko smiles. "Don't worry about it. Im new too. And never been to Germany! Just point me in the right direction and I'll do what needs doing."

Shaking her head, Nagi responds, "Not terribly. It will be linguistically similar to calling modern English the same as the Middle English that the Cantebury tales were written in. My native Japanese has similar distinctions, though the Osakan dialect is more similar to the old forms. I can run a Mental procecure to translate for the group, but they will have ot be within range of me by translating it in the language centers of the mind utilizing my sb processors."

Anne nods. "I was able to requisition transation devices, but Nagi's procedures may be far more effective." she looks to a few of the mooks hanging around. "And there aren't enough for your entire team."

Ecko says louder then he should which is saying it at all. "I know some really nasty German curse words."

Anne smirks to Ecko and stifles a snicker. "Those may be of use actually..."

Major says, "I'm good with temporal mechanics. I've apparently been programmed with... alot of those... for some reason."

Priest keeps his hands folded behind his back, he gives a bit of a nod "I can link with them and relay anything important back to the team. I had them issued lower tech weaponry before we left." his smooth british accent was all business it seems tonight "They'll be below praciticing with them to get up to speed."

Ecko smiles. "Good! I'll use them when I need them!" he beams. Hes helping.

Major says, "Weapons training was not part of my training. But I have acquired clothing appropriate for a Muslim traveller for that period."

"I have my own," says Nagi as she holds her hand out to one side, "SWATH: Assault Mode." Her skin begins to pulse with vein-like pathways of golden light leading to her hand. The air around he rhand distorts and suddenly there is a swirl of... small cubes, flakelke, slowly stacking into place row after row similar to a 3D printer. A sword appears in he rhand, crafted of primal energy, air, and dust transmuted into ally as hard as tank armor with fiber optic pathways of golden light laced through it. The blade alone is at least as long as she is tall. The handle alone is three feet, making it more like a polemarm than a sword. She soon raises the zanbato and hangs it from a specialized hanger on her back. "I have detailed files on the locals. I will accomodate them with a visual cortex reading of myself that looks like one of them."

A noise powers up from... The back of Anne's neck. It's fairly soft spoken there, but it feeds into the radio she has implanted, and feeds into all of the comm systems they have currently attached, as well as the console. The voice is soft, and calm... And masculine. Aren't AI supposed to be female? "There is a Swede army approaching from the northwest. According to calculations, they are first moving into Gossenheim. There is a bridge there, I suggest you destroy it, so that they will be forced to take a longer way south. Projections indicate current ETA at one week, post ETA at nine or ten days." And then the voice cuts out, to run more calculations.

Anne nods. "Be aware I am detecting two armies in teh area properly flying their colors. One corresponds with Holy Roman Empire, the other, as Y-91 mentioned is a Swedish army that appears to be flying the banner for Gustavus Adolphus. I would be careful of appearing as any particular faction while in territory controlled by the other... I'll keep you informed of when you are entering or leaving faction territory."

Priest takes in the information "We can pose as Condottieri, there presence wouldn't be too out of place, and they were in demand, everyone needs more soldiers. Should give us some wiggle room to move around unmolested."

Anne nods. "Excellent. I assume it would not be unheard of for them to have a Muslim scholar with them?" she asks, indicating towards Major. "I'm not entirely familiar with social practices."

Priest shifts his shade gaze over and his head shakes a bit "Not entirely, they've been known to hire out portions of their forces for body guard details as well. Should be just fine." Should being the operative word, but no plan ever survives contact

Major looks hopefully at Priest, while mentally he studies up on the Condottieri.

Anne nods. "Alright we have cover set... need a chain of command and a drop zone selected."

Major says, "It'll need to be somewhere out of the way. But with a plausible destination. Condottieri are more common in Italy. Our target is the Gossemheim bridge, but we'll want to return to Karlstadt to gain information. So we should approach from the East. We can be returning from engagements in Russia."

Priest lets his brow peek up over his shades "My knowledge of this time period is spotty at best. I assume using plastic explosives, while effective won't be of much use to us out there. We'll need to get our hands on blasting powder and...improvise. I know how to handle that."

"There is a non-zero chance that plastic explosives will be inert. Alternate dimensions operate on alternate rules.

Ecko shakes his head. "Same here. I guess its learn as you go eh?"

Anne nods and snickers a little to Ecko, showing a surprising amount of friendliness to the vat grown marine. (Sorry folks, she's used to marines, not you guys.) "That tends to be how many of these missions go. I think I can see a landing zone between Gossenheim and Hammelsburg, there's a cliff that will block us from sight from either settlement. There may be some visibility from the camp around Karstadt, but no one could get to teh site from there before you've reached a settlement."

The AI voice pipes up again. "Alternatively, we could simply send a dead drop down with a temporary ring structure, and only beam down one individual to set the thing up. Then you could all transit without much issue. There -is- a massive cave system beneath the area."

Priest would give a faint nod of his head at that "Would be a good safehouse as well. Can lose people in cave systems, shame when people go exploring and are never heard from again." he didn't sound like it was a shame at all

Major says, "Goetz-Höhle is a cavern complex north of Hammelburg by thirty miles. It is in operation today and I can download schematics of its current layout."

"Good, I will commence preparing the dead drop as soon as a mission commander is chosen." The AI continues, then cuts off, before coming back online there. "...Or now. Whatever. Now works." Then it cuts off again, and sends the instructions to the drop bay. Apparently, it has some personality quirks.

Anne goes to help prepare the transportation system. "You'll have to find your own ground transportation on site. We don't have the energy reserves to teleport you all over the world." she warns to whoever is the volunteer. As a safety protocol she scans the cave system carefully. "The nearest settlement, Hammelburg is almost entirely abandoned, but there is a small number of people still visible. As for the cave system.. .I'm reading a non-native dimensional resonance in the cave... but it's faint."

The AI pipes up over the comms again as Anne works on the drop pods. "We still do not have a mission commander. If your human minds are indecisive, as the superior design, I would be happy to take charge of this operation." it pipes up, like an asshole or something. "Otherwise, please choose before this pod is sent." Again with the personality quirks.

Ecko pauses. "You don't want me. Honest!"

Anne looks at the speakers then down at the monitor, scanning through a few diagnostics. "I'm certain that's nothihng to worry about. But yes Should likely establish a chain of command before contact with anything unusual. Otherwise we'll all scream orders and Nagi will not know who to listen to."

Priest rolls his eyes at the AI, though it was hidden behide those mirror shades "Fine. I'm a handler of agents, I can work this task back home. This should only feel slightly different."

You sense Monitor Y-91 snickers in Anne's mind. "That got em moving. I'm reminded of HK-37..."

You sense Monitor Y-91 corrects himself. "Err, 47.

Anne snickers loudly ot herself, then looks up to the others like she had her hand cought in the cookie jar. Her cheeks instantly flush red. "Sorry. Okay the drop pod is set for who wishes to go. We have the equipment on board. Do you know how to set up a site to site tranposrtation ring?"

Major digs out his clothing from a bag and starts to put it on. It's fairly accurate, like he bought it from a Ren Faire costumer or something. On short notice, it won't stand up to close scrutiny. At least it doesn't have any zippers. He puts it on over his jumpsuit.

Anne looks to Major. "That's a good idea actually, you should probably change beforfe going down... though I will admit the area we are dropping you near is almost entirely empty except for small isolated armed groups."

"Good. If there are no objections, Agent Priest is in charge of this operation." the AI says over the comms, then goes silent again without further meatbag comments and things of that nature.

Reaching back, Nagi unhooks SWATH from her back and grouns the tip of the massive blade against the command floor. There are spars. It actually leaves a faint scratch on the metal below her feet, though the sword is undulled. You see her eyes glow golden and the pupils turn a laserpointer red as light pulses up and down her saffron skin in ciruit pathways, translating over her nanite biomesh armor. The sword responds. you see a sort of camera eye on the hilt that has raw code flowing vertically. And then Nagi sort of de-rezzes as, in her place, stands a full blown six foot four, Germanic warrior in plate and chain holding a Zweihander. The features are not seen within the helmet, but this is definitely a male figure. "Ready to go." Comes a deep baritone.

Major says, "Probably hunting parties and bandits. Fun."

<recording corrupted for a few seconds>

Stepping into the pod, Nagi says in that unsettlingly deep baritone, "I AM the blade, remember?" Settling herself... himself... into place, there is a strapping of belts. The illusion is pretty thorough. Even the belts look like they go around armor and the larger girth of an armored male, though the monitors still show the slim little Japanese girl in thermal and the like.

Anne frowns a little at the scratch to her bulkhead. Right. Just wait for her to leave, then fix it.

"If you have issue, I can attempt to assist you through the installation process." the AI tells Nagi into her comm, then goes back to its calculations quietly. It's not being overly involved, but at least it seems helpful!

Major looks a little less awkward in period clothing than in his jumpsuit. "Alright. I'm ready. I am Ibn al-Hazred. Easy enough to remember, right?" He has a carrysack with his outfit made of authentic leather. His outfit is pristine, as if he just purchased it.

Anne looks to Major with some alarm for about three seconds before breaking into loud genuine laughter.

Major looks puzzled. "If I've done something wrong... um... you can tell me? My implanted experiences don't really cover this sort of thing."

Shaking his head the big german knight responds, "Grew up on a station. I can handle it, even without a synch up. No worries."

Anne is still doubled over in laughter and may be the only one to get the reason she's laughing. She continues to laugh while going through the secondary safety checks on Nagi's gear. Yes she knows Nagi did it right, but you always have a second person check rigging and securings. Protocol. "No... it's... that is a very good name for you. Maybe you should keep it."

"They wouldn't let me, even if I wanted it. They wouldn't even let me be Major Protagonist. I'm still working on an official last name." Major mutters.

Priest taps a few times at his tablet, the jacket he is wearing shimmers and rolls, the cloth turning and folding over his body to become time appropriate. He looks now more like a musketeer with that coat now being a tabard. Although one wearing Mirror Shades

Anne snickers to Major and gives him a grin. "Well you're in space now Cadet. Call yourself whatever you want here as long as we can tell it's you." she announces making her way to the control panel. Nagi is given full control of the pod as she is a trained pilot. The trajectory course sets her for the night side of the planet, just south of a small mountain range and north of a settelement that looks to mostly be a vineyard.

Priest flicks a few times at his tablet, bringing up his own personalized view as he settles into a comfortable stance, seemingly at ease at the distance work.

Monitor Y-91 whispers: Hurry up and get them off of our ship so we can start touching each other.

Anne snorts and snickers at the panel before covering her mouth to cough. Failing horribly at covering up her innapropriate spontaneous laughter. Nothing to worry about here. Your pilot is just nuts. That's common right?

Quiet. Before a drop, Nagi is always quiet. Quiet as a mouse. Motionless, still, her heartrate very low. She lived most of her life in space, this is home. And yet again she is about to leave it. Survivors of Poseidon Station are unmatched in close combat. Little to the Technocrats around her know about the Zaibatsu, her true faction, the Elemental dragons of the East. She sits here among the Metal Dragons awaiting orders from Westerners, but she is home. She is ready. Soon silence will be replaced by the rush.

Once the engines are cut the silence is all encompassing. The atmospherics on the pod won't need to filter the air just yet, so there is complete silence. Nothing for Nagi but the general pulse that flows through her to inform her she's alive.

Slowly noise begins to build from the silence. At first it's a quiet high pitches whine. The sound begins to grow deeper as it increases in volume. The pod jolts as atmospheric braking slows the fall. It almost feels like slamming into a solid brick wall... but the pod just keeps going. The entire view of the outside is engulfed in flames.

For over a minute tehre is nothing outside but fire, a raoring never ending explosion that trails along with the ship as it streaks through the sky. Below a few people see a harbinger of coming doom, a sign of the end times. Those people are nuts. Shooting stars happen EVERY NIGHT. Geez.

Suddenly the viewscreen clears, a NIR display shining green to give everything sharper contrast so the pilot can see, along with a trajectory overlay.

Major watches the ships telemetry with the fascination of one who comprehends how it works, but could never work it himself.

Tap tap tap. Priest kept his gaze on that tablet, linking it to the camera feed now so he can see what is going on and respond

Anne goes through warm up and ready procedures for transporting the rest of the team across once the gate is set up on the other end.

Monitor Y-91 helps Anne, from inside her mind! Only stopping to say over the comms, "Watch for banana peels on the descent." Yes, it's an absolutely terrible joke. Sue me!

Major says, "I don't think bananas are likely in this time period and location." Major says, missing the joke entirely."

She can feel her own breath, her own Ch'i. Even her ein space there are dragon lines, distant and disprate traceroutes back to Terra. But she isn't Terran, as much as she is Japanese. Fire. The familiarity of reentry, the feel of gravity pulling on her, the weight of her own metal laced bones, the sweet pain of the rush beginning.

She watches the cosmos with eyes that are filled with stars. The azmuth of the moon just visible before reentry well and truly claims the ship in fire. And then she is clear of it, in the atmosphere, training kicking in instantly as her mind and her subroutines guide her hands so that the prearranged course is adjusted by milliseconds on the fly to match the second-by-second accuracy.

She IS a void Engineer. Piloting a drop craft in for a landing is in her blood.

Priest watches those calculations fly by on his tablet, he nods a few moments as his brain processes it all in that time as well. He glances up briefly to take in some other random bit of information from the ships screens and taps that into his tablet as well.

The shuttle touches down at the mouth of the cave, confusing and stupifying anyone inside. Over the intercom Anne's voice gives a general alert. Her voice is nowhere near as unsettling and powerful as the tiny Asian warrior's baritone. It's still rather deep for a woman. "I'm detecting three heat signatures in the vicinity with teh on board sensors. One isn't moving. Advise caution. Use of this vessal may be taken as witchcraft."

"Kuso," intones Nagi as she settles the vessle in place. She tries to land it in such a way that it will not be found easily and then exits, taking the comm link with her and pulinking it through an earpiece beneath her illusionary helmet.

Out of the ship and smoke steps a warrior standing six feet tall. He has a look of grm determination on what can be seen on his proud nordic features as his long braided beard trails to his belt bucklehis stride belies his side, loose and free and easy, like a stalking predatorwhile the light gleams off of armor that looks dented and scarred from many battles. He pulls out his Sweihander, laying it by the flat against his massive shoulders as he strides towards the three heat signatures and waits to hear snippets of the language before saying anything.

Monitor Y-91 chimes in on Nagi's comms after Anne frees up the channel. "Two are human, the other is humanoid in shape, but I cannot identify its makeup. Proceed with caution. I would advise no witnesses to this landing... But... That's why I'm not in charge!" This is on all the comms, of course, so everyone can chime in if they want to offer any extra aid.

Major says, "Well it's a little too late for no witnesses if the heat signatures are close enough to pick up on thermal imaging from the pod..."

You sense Monitor Y-91 snickers softly. "Is err... Is killing extradimensional humans against the precepts?

Anne shrugs to herself at the control panels. "I think operational secrecy take precedence though. Not my operation. She also has people skills I don't."

Major says, "Well, secrecy is blown now, isn't it?"

Anne nods and sighs. "Yes... they must have been inside the cave during my scan."

The heat signatures are a little spread out. One is hiding inside a tree, hoping that people just continue their habit of not looking up when trying to find things. The other is cowering behind a rock. The third is not hiding.

It's curently night time, none of them can really see much as the moon is almost gone as well.

"If they saw the craft, I'll sanction the targets. However, advise Control; Will killing locals alter the timeline and aversely affect our own?" says the massive Norseman in a quiet rumble while moving TOWARD the heat sigs on threat, not wanting to let them close to the craft. "Killing locals here and now could be a determent to finding out what we need. I will attempt to parlay first and acertain if they have seen the drop craft."

Blade grounded at his feet the massive Germanic knight in battle mail and chain grounds the tip of the Zweihander. "COME OUT LITTLE MICE I know you are here. Fenris crack your bones I dislike all of this skulking about. Think you that I can not find you?"

"So... oh." He's not dense, he just doesn't think in that direction. "Restoring secrecy without violence seems unlikely." Major's voice is soft and hopeful. "I can crunch the likelihood of temporal resonance affecting our own timestream if you like." He's happy to have a distraction.

Anne bites her lip and nods to Major. "Err yes actually please test that."

Major turns his attention to a panel to assist him in making those scans. "Probability would be negigible under normal conditions, but the existence of the temporal anomaly could have created a neo-temporal synchronicity with possible feedback."

Monitor Y-91 chirps up over the comms. "Well, unless we have time to trace that, I would suggest a... Ping. To test the temporal feedback." What a nice word for murder, isn't it? Ping?

Major says, "No. No pings." Major shouts. "Wait. No. That could work. I need you to leave a mark of your passing. A sword scratch on the wall. It would be distinctive enough. I'm parsing through photos of the cavern entrance. Your mark is going to need to be distinctive to us, but not significant enough to warrant investigation. But I can't suggest anything due to the observer's paradox.""

As the Iron Giant is between their planned escape path and is now heading right for them, the person behind the rock gives an alarmed yelp and retreats into the cave. The perosn in the tree just squeezes his eyes closed and hopes this all goes away.

Stepping towards the cave wall, the massive norseman roars as he swings his zweihander at the cave wall. It is the beginnings of a Kanji, but only the first stroke thatis left. Enough that it could be an incidental scar, but precise and distinct enough to be recognized by the team. Sparks ring out as the sword rings sparks off living rock, monomolecular bladework that is only three micrometer's thick carves the rock with a single movement. "You RUN? COWARD!" The Norseman beats his chest with a clang of metal on metal "I am NACHT! A curse on you, and all your blood if you turn your back to me! It will just make you easier to see you as my enemy and strike you down!"<Science happens to emotionally manipulate the fleeing man>

Major scans through the images he has seen of the caves, the tourist locations as quickly as possible. He's looking for any image that may have caught that scratch. If it's there, the timelines are synched. If it is not, then the temporal instability has not become entangled with reality. He's not sure which one he is hoping for.

On the viewscreen before Major, there is no good answer for this. If it appears this event skyrockets to a keter level event quite likely. Failure to handle such a thing peoperly could result in destruction of cities, alteration of wide selections of history. Also it means if they bungle this there will be summary executions in their future assuming they even still exist. If nothing appears... a lesser terrible fate, but likely all of these men are dead. There are no signs of marks on the cave wall however. Nothing changes.

Down below, the peasant foolishly turns on his foot. The scrawny five foot four man, who looks like he hasn't eaten in several days paces quickly towards the night. "Many things I may be but a coward is not one!" he growls.

"Okay. Um... Nagi. This is... um... this far from the temporal disturbance, I'm not witnessing any synchronicity between the alternate timeline and ours. You are okay to proceed however you feel is best." Major's voice trembles slightly at the end of that statement, despite trying to put a brave face on it.

"Good to know," says Nacht as he reaches out for the man, "I despise cowards... " The massive knight's gauntleted hand seems to move in a flash.

Major blurts out: "Saint Gereon!" He calls. "Tell him you are Saint Gereon." He says once Nagi has gotten her first victim in a chokehold.

Major says, "Holy Roman Empire." Major explains: "If she claims to be St. Gereon, she doesn't have to kill anyone and there won't be any accusations of witchcraft. We can remove the pod before he brings anyone back to the scene." He bounces on his toes anxiously."

Monitor Y-91 whispers "Unfortunately these sorts of decisions aren't in my purview, darling. At least someone has a mind for social applications around here."

"I am St. Gereon," says Nacht in a low growl to the man as he spins the guy around and holds the Zweihander against his throat. The stench of leather and the thews of powerful muscle bulge against Nacht's victim. That illusion makes a body really see it. Of course, to the crew above, Nagi looks like a slim little nothing Asian girl with Purple hair weilding a sword longer than she is tall and manhandling a man who is several inches taller than she is as her skin glows with tracerouts of primal energy that extend into the sword as circuitboard pattern-like cappilaries.

Major doesn't hold his breath, "Play the character. You're a soldier executed for refusing to worship Roman pagan gods. You prize valor in combat and virtue in victory."

The man clealry has fear in his eyes, but the mental effects of the little woman overide that. He bares his teeth to look Nacht in the eye. "Then I stand my ground."

The figure in the tree just stays fucking put. He has nothing to do with this.

"Good," says Nacht, the St. Geron once again walking the earth. "Then I know the body nearby is not your fault. You saw my return to earth." The massive Nordic Saint releases the man, ""And with such fear, i had to test your mettle. You know it is Valor in Combat that wins the day, for the Lord of hosts is with us." She lets loose the hate effect and says "I may need your help to purge this land of a great injustice." Looking to the man in the tree Nacht says "YOU! If you value your life, you will come. Here. NOW."

"Coincidentally, St. Gereon is the saint of migraine headaches. So... leaving him with one should reinforce your identity." Major coaches, this is all he's really good at, coordinating from afar.

The other man in the tree practically falls out of it as Nacht calls him down. He's not about to question a fucking Saint. He may not have bought it right off the bat but... shit who ELSE comes down from the sky with fire?

To the first man, Nacht says "Tell no one what happened here. And stay here for amoment." He stalks towards the man who fell out of th etree, that zweihander flat held against his shoulder again. His armor clinks, heavy boots tromp. He addresses the tree dweller, "Come here, if you can still move. Show me not the cowardice of evil, or I might smite thee where ye stand."

Major relaxes visibly when the first of the men is downed. "Can the pod focus on the third heat signature?" He asks, Nagi seems to have the second one firmly in hand.

The man who had made a break for the cave stands in confused bewilderment for a few moments as the effect vanishes and he finds himself no longer angry. The fear comes back until Nacht mentions the corpse. Before he can say anything though his eyes glaze over and he covers his face as the migrane takes full effect. He growls in pain and falls to his knees.

The second man watches him and frowns. Oh yay. A saint of migranes. Such a blessing. "You... you know... you know we didn't do it?" he asks nervously.

Anne smiles to Major. It doesn't look like something she does often. "That was quick thinking. Good work." Her compliment given she looks back down to her scanners. "Third signature still hasn't moved... it could be the body? I don't know why it would be warm."

"Because it's recent, or he's not dead." Major has basic medical experience. "Or they were cooking it." Major adds. "Just watched Colony on Netflix. Underrated movie. Can I put a biomedical filter on it? I might figure out what happened to him. Our Saint needs to know. Can you stall Nagi?"

Anne nods to Major and steps away from the panel. "Shouldn't be too hard. Won't be as informative as a standard medical scanner but we should still be able to detect pulse breathing rate and other vitals..."

Monitor Y-91 pipes up over the comms, in a slightly urgent voice. "Subject is human, but it is not alive in the traditional sense. It would appear to being kept alive by some force or other, I do not have the required scanners installed. Subject is brain dead, proceed with EXTREME caution.

"I know much," says Nacht as he claps his armored fst to his metal breastplate with a clang. "I have been sent to mete out justice in the name of th eLord of Hosts. That comes with a certain sense of... " ther eis agrin on that nordic face, though most of it is hidden by th ehelmet "Judgement."

Of course you see Nagi in that orange skinsuit barely tap her own bosom with a fist. Woohoo, eye'candy. You know you're enjoying it.

"I would speak with you. Come closer."

"What? Like a zombie? That's rid... no... nothing is ridiculous. Gracious. That would explain why the nearby city is deserted." Major says. "Okay. Nagi. There is no way that two peasants could have rendered the third victim in this state. You can ... um... shrive him, or whatever. With a headache. The third entity has to be the non-native dimensional resonance, or an effect of it."

"Well, more like... Hm, you know, that other experiment. Very similar... Sort of. I'm sorry, I wish I could be more helpful." the Monitor says over the comms to them, still analyzing the image he has of it, and attempting to figure out another way to actually scan the damned thing from this distance.

The second man nears Nacht his head held low, hands clapsed at his chest. He's still not very happy with this but he knows better than to try to fight a saint. Especially one that was a badass. His hands remain in front of him as in prayer as he speaks. "Ye-yes m'lord?"

"I know you are not responsible for the body," says Nacht, this time driving the sword into the ground so that the gem on the hilt of the Zweihander shows the man's reflection in it. Of course, this functions like Nagi's device mode would anyway.

There is a bit of a flicke rof light, though what really goes on behind there is a stream of code to allow her to hack the man's beta waves utilizing the localized Shoeman resonance as a medium to transfer data as packets over a field of about 25 hrtz.

Placing a gauntleted hand on his shoulder Nacht says "Good man. Tell me. Did you see what did kill that person?"

"Okay. Getting more readings on the braindead victim. I am going to need some help. Nagi? The life readings on the body might be concealing something inside. Can you provide me with an x-ray burst? I might be able to discern internal life forms that way. I'm expecting parasites. Don't worry about the body. He's braindead. Cancer is the least of his worries." Major says, manipulating his screens in preparation. "Y-91, let's avoid any surprises, can you set up a perimeter? Two hundred yards should be enough warning."

"Just a moment." the Monitor responds, then goes about running through his processes list and whatnot.

Monitor Y-91 whispers "A general presence scan will do. I can examine any particular life forms when you zoom in on them from afar in more detail. And perhaps a Dimensional Science scan as well."

<Recording corrupted, possibly from low level gamma ray burst or X-ray interference.>

"Okay. That's going to be insufficient. Set up the portal, I'll watch the body while the AI keeps the perimeter. I'll bring some surgical instruments with me. And I'll hypercram some medicine. I think we're going to need it." Major says into the mic. "Are you sure you're going to stay up here A... Anne?"

Anne shakes her head and sighs to Major. "No. I'd rather be down there. I'm still recovering from surgery though. We need to be able to move quickly. I can't." Her eyes go quickly back to the monitor. "I'll be keeping eyes out up here... if you're in danger and can't make it to the gate we can survive at least one reentry."

"And I will be here for various out of the way information topics. But please, keep in mind I am a biological AI, and not a computerized one." The Monitor states, then goes back to.... Whatever the fuck it is he does when he's not saying things. Probably making Anne laugh.

Now that everyone can see the body on camera. It's DEFINTIELY been dead for a while. The flesh is riddled with tiny holes, though no blood leaks from them. Ants crawl in an out of them, having clearly made a nest in the body by this point. A few festering wounds crawl with maggots. Maggots the ants actually seem to be ignoring despite being an easy food source. Now and again a beetle of various kinds works its way out from under a hole in the skin.

Neither man stays long. As soon as they are allowed ot leave they're gone.

"Roger that," says Nagi, "Once we have a firm basecamp and someone watching my back, I'll take a look back in the timestream to see what happened." She flexes her hand and unflexes it. She's tense, like any frontliner. In the construct she may be Dr. Sakurazaka, but in the field she is First Lt. Sakurazaka. She heads back to set up the portal, ssuming she is left unmolested.

Anne zooming at the scan as requested loses some detail but it's more than enough to track the two men as they retreat. "There's maybe fifteen people in the settlement south of you, one of the men is headed that way. The other seems to be headed for the river."

Major spends the intervening minutes cramming on medicine, and then collecting a set of scalpels, surgical tools and most importantly, gloves. He takes a deep breath and steps through the gate to the surface. His first time on foreign soil. He is a mix of trepidation and excitement.

"Allright, Control," says Nagi, "Gate is up an running." Of course, Major encounters Nacht instead of Nagi. BIG, 6 foot something, heavily armored norseman with a sword on his back. He grns down at the other man. You can smell the metal and sweat and leather. It smells like victory.

Anne offers some advice over comms, not wanting to interupt in person. She mails Major a message to be read when he has time while she monitors the location. There's a short scare as a number of heat signatures move quickly in Nagi's direction, but they are quickly found to be wolves. Not even werewolves. Just regular every day wolves. Nacht is DEFINITELY not something they will fuck with and they move on.

"Major will be coming down first. I'll send in the operatives afterwards to help secure your LZ." Flips his hood up over his head. A transparent bubble forms around his head as well. "Let's take a look at the victim." He walks carefully around Nacht. He could probably pierce that illusion if he tried, but he's got biological senses up right now.