"This has nothing to do with cabins or a fever. This has to do with acquiring components I can not find or make here," as Samuel walks voer to the smaller airlock for personel in the makeshift shuttle hangar to wait.

"Besides it's best if I go alone, any guards that come with me means Aquarius' defenses are weakened, and I won't risk taking a civilian into a dangerous place, as that goes against the principles I live by as a Stelaras Employee." Samuel sighs as his mind drifts back to what he's lost. Samusl goes quiet as his mind thinks of how Mobius is a prison for him, and Robotnik is the psychotic warden...and that one day he'll rescue his captain, his best friend, and his wife from that madman...and then leave this hellhole of a planet to get back where he belongs....outer space.

But before that, Samuel Stevenson must first repair his shuttle, find out how to reverse the roboticization process, find his crewmates, rescue them, and get revenge on Robotnik... and not necessarily in that order.

Michael says, "The windmill was the first place I checked." He glances into the direction of the camoflaged windmill and adds, "It's okay for now, but it's only a matter of time before its maintenance will require some of the items on the list I just gave you." as Michael looks back to Katy and wonders how she'll respond to what he has just told her.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:24, Sat 13 Jan 2007.

"Of all the stubborn.." Shelly thinks to herself. She then replies with, "I can understand your concern, but going it alone is more dangerous since you won't have anyone to watch your back. And if you get caught, me and many more that would have gone with you in the first place will come to rescue you. So just let some freedom fighters do what they do best. I mean come on... we're all in this fight against Robonik, so we all accept the risks."

After finishing his breakfast, Valin exits his hut and looks around. As he doesn't have anything that he has to do for the next few hours, Valin figures that he shouldn't spend his free time couped up in a hut, as he's always prefered being outside when the weather is nice.

Thus Valin starts walking around Channelwood's second level, simply observing how things are, as wildlife is still abundant in the forest, and Valin has always enjoyed living amoung the wildlife, as he always knows where he stands with nature.

Katy ponders for a moment while staring at the list. "Alright then. A material run. Go get Emerald and Joe and meet me in the planning room. I'll be getting the Middletown map and the plans I've been making." With that, she waits for Michael to acknowledge before she heads for the elevator that heads for the third level.

Shelly's words bring Samuel's thoughts back to the present as he says, "The more that come, the more at risk. Besdies if I'm captured, I'll be dead before Robotnik's forces can interrogate or roboticize me. If I'd be dead that fast, there would be no time for a rescue. For a person used to traveling free among the stars, being stuck on a planet is a fate many would say is worse than death. There is nothing you can say that will convince me delay going I know the dangers and I am prepared the face them."

Samuel closes his eyes for a moment as he awaits for the lockdown to be lifted so he can get going. Samuel is tired of being told things people think he doesn't understand. But he's even more tired of people underestimating him, Robotnik made that mistake when his Spacepod entered Mobius' atmosphere and crashed in the ocean..and now Samuel feels that Shelly is underestimating him... after the sensors Samuel has at his disposal, Samuel can watch his own back..and Shelly seems to believe that he doesn't know what he can and can't handle. "As soon as the lockdown is lifted, I'm going out this airlock... I'm going to complete my mission, and I won't let anything on Mobius stand in my way."

Michael nods and asks, "I'll get them, anyone else you think might be useful on this raid?" as Michael awaits Katy's responce before heading off to fetch Joe and Emerald.

  Joe might take advantage of those moments where you can be lazy without causing any hassles, but that doesn't mean he doesn't go out of his way to make things easier for others at times.  Take now for example, instead of having to look for both Joe and Emerald, Mike only has to look for Emerald thanks to the fact Joe happened to be passing by the area.  Never mind it involved more coincidence than planned action, it still counts.

  "From the four words of that I heard, I'm assuming I'm going to be told to do stupidly dangerous things and be given the conflicting orders not to do stupidly dangerous things while we're out there at the same time?  If so, no problem. Well, unless I'm supposed to play suicidal decoy or something, then I might argue with you for two minutes for appearances sake before going with it."

  Yes, anyone can wander through killer robot infested areas and get supplies.  Its doing this and being able to convince people you're doing this in a safe manner thats really hard.

Shelly scrunches up her face. "You really should try to be more social, ya know..." is all she says before checking the monitors again. "Lifting lockdown. The spybot's gone. Anyone planning to go outside, please do so with caution as always." That said, she presses the button to release lockdown. Meanwhile, she hurries over to a couple freedom fighters. "Samuel is going to Middletown alone. Follow him." They bow and hurry off.

Katy notices Joe conveniently showing up somehow and says, "Well sort of. It's a supplies run, but I also plan to kill two birds with one stone. You may as well accompany me to Level 3." she then looks to Michael, ponders for a moment and says, "Yes. I'm sure I won't need anyone else. You'll be going also, but I'll be staying here. I have some things to do here and the mission isn't complicated. Again... meet you at the planning room." She starts off towards the elevator that leads to Level 3.

As soon as the lockdown is lifted, Samuel steps into the airlock and shuts the door behind him. He then quickly takes out and dons the gas mask from his tool belt to allow him to breath while underwater.

Within moments of the gas mask being put on, he floods the airlock with water and then opens the door infront of him to the lake. As soon as Samuel exits Aquarius he closes the airlock behind him and starts swiming towards the shore near Middletown. Samuel sets his diagnostic sensors to continually make passive scans to try and give him as much warning when a robot comes into the area as possible since Samuel most will need those sensors long before he reaches Middletown.

Samuel stays away from the surface of the lake until it is so shallow he has no choice to surface at the shore. After reaching the shore, he double checks the two water proof satchels and backpack, that he has put on to safely store the materials he plans to bring back to Aquarius, before he starts heading towards Middletown.

Samuel closes his eyes for a moment and thinks to himself, 'This should be no different from the virtual reality simulations I've run, now let's see how acurate those simulations were.'

Michael looks over to Joe and grins while thinking, 'He definately is a strange one, but his timing tends to be helpful, well most of the time at least.' Michael then nods to Katy and says, "It shouldn't take too long to find Emerald and get to the planning room, see you there."

Michael then jumps up onto a nearby treebranch and starts using the trees as a shortcut to Emerald's hut as he figures she should still be in or near her hut.

And not far behind Samuel are two freedom fighters. A seabear and a skunk. The two know to stay a safe distance away from Samuel's heat sensors, so the chances of him detecting them are slim to none.

Upon getting to Middletown, Samuel can see about 5 SWATbots are patrolling the nearest entrance road. There are, of course, buildings to sneak into, but chances are Samuel would be spotted if he were to try sneaking into one. One of the annoying things about Middletown's defence is that it has a wide open area, making it easy for those inside Middletown to see who is coming. It would seem the only alternative would be the sewer or just straight up combat with a half dozen SWATbots. Hey... nobody said sneaking into Robotnik territory was easy... even a remote place like Middletown.

Emerald is at her hut, watering some potted flowers and plants she has hanging around. She notices Michael swinging her way and pauses to turn and face him with her watering can in front of her.

As Samuel knows there is no way even inthe best situation that he could take out all the SWATBots before they called for reinforcements, Samuel opts for using the sewers. With his gas mask, he won't be bothered by the smell, and he's had to work in some rather unpleasant areas before. With his sensors it's not too hard to find an enterence into the sewers that isn't guarded...unfortunately this also means anyone following him will have to take the same route.

Michael grins as he finds Emerald, before saying, "I'm glad I found you. Katy needs us in the planning room to discuss a raid to get some supplies from Middletown." Michael thinks to himself, 'It's a good thing I found her here, it could have taken quite a while if she wasn't here and I had to look all over Channelwood for her.'

  Mittens blinks in surprise at the sight of Middletown.  "Wow!" she thinks to herself, "Wasn't expecting this town to be so lively!"  ^.^  Mittens recalls her training: the presence of so much activity can only mean one or both of two things - valuable resources, and/or freedom fighter groups in the area!  :D  She sits on the tree branch she was standing on, watches the enemy through an old-fashioned spyglass, and munches on an apple.  :9

  "Well," she explains to herself, "So much for the direct approach.  No way I'm getting through the front door..."  Mittens easily gets distracted with fantasies of flying over the defenses with and imaginary rocket pack, landing in the center of town, fighting her way through hoards of Swats, facing off against some giant boss robot that's holding a child hostage, and slicing it in half Voltron style.  *.*  "Waitaminute.  Wouldn't the explosion kill the kid?  Guess I'd have to slice off the hand first."  Mittens motions her hand like she's practicing the ancient slice-off-giant-robot's-hand-while-rescuing-child technique.  (>-.-)>+-

  She snaps out of her muse.  "If ya can't beat 'em join 'em I always say!"  With that, she makes her way to the forest floor and constructs some stilts out of a few strong, straight branches.  She then camouflages herself with a bush, puts her shield made from a Swatbot's head on on her own head, and begins approaching the town looking for all the world like a stilted bush with a Swatbot's head on top.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:51, Mon 15 Jan 2007.

Fortunately for Mittens, or unfortunately for Samuel, his path to the sewer enterence takes him right past Mittens in her 'costume'. Samuel blinks for a second upon seeing the oddity from his position at the treeline. Samuel then says, "I don't know who you are, but that won't fool anyone. Unless you want to be roboticized, I suggest you get over here. Otherwise I will shoot you to prevent you setting off alarms in Middletown," as Samuel has his left hand on the holster for his laster cutter pistol and his right on his gauss gun holster as Samuel hopes that none of the robots have already seen this oddity. Samuel sighs as he knows that if the alarms get set off this early he might as well hide in the forest till the alarms die down and thigns go back to normal before trying again.

On the other hand, Samuel realizes that this is some childish attempt to look like a SWATBot, and then grins as he realizes he could pull the trick off with a real SWATBot shell. And for that he'd need an intact SWATBot, or two SWATBots damaged in different areas...Samuel thinks to himself, 'Just great, more items to add to the list I'll eventually need to get.

Samuel knows that if anyone triggers an alarm, it will make his job infinitly more difficult as he knows that freedom fighters travel in packs. Thus Samuel must assume that those running Middletown wouldn't be contient to capture just one person. They'd look for that person's friends, even if there were none, which would inturn make Samuel's job of getting in and out undetected much harder as they'd probably search areas they don't normally search.

  While there are some people who might think to themselves 'I could do that' after seeing someone do something mildly fancy like ignore the convenient walkways to save time, Joe's train of thought went more along the lines of 'There is an elevator! Right there! Cmon man!'  Sure it was faster and easier heading to a lower floor useing Mike's methods thanks to gravity, but the upward distance required effort.  Besides, Katy would even be dealing with the pushing of buttons, how could he not take advantage of this?

  "I'd ask for details, but I figure I'll let you need to explain it only once."

  Joe isn't lazy, so much that he saves up his effort for special occasions.

Emerald nods to Michael. "Alright. I'll be there." That said, she heads for the elevator also.

Katy arrives on level 3 with Joe and taps the button to send the elevator back down to the others. She then heads for the planning room (which is on the way to her room) and says, "I'll be right back. Do me a favor, Joe. Pull out the Middletown map and tack it on the table." She heads off to her hut.

Of the two who were following Samuel, the seabear gives a look if distain for the idea of hitting the sewers. The skunk seems uneffected. But they both get distracted for a moment as this... stilted bush with a SWATbot head... walks in to the area. Both of them go for cover and watch since they noticed Samuel was about to handle the situation.

For the record, SWATbots are pretty stupid. Almost stupid enough to believe a SWATbot-headed bush is a fellow SWATbot. But not... QUIIIITE that stupid. Otherwise, the freedom fighters would have figure out long ago to simpley pilfer SWATbot heads.

That said, a SWATbot turns to notice Mittens and even though she is still in the shadows, he sees this:
  ____
 /____\
  /00\
  \__/
  /  \
 /    \
/      \_
\

"Unidentified object." says one SWATbot. Another SWATbot hears this statement and faces the one who said it. The original bot continues, "I have no robot matching that in my databanks. Digitizing appearance."

It appears that while Mittens has effectively evaded immediate capture (And thankfully, the bots might not even search for "friends" since she DEFINATELY doesn't match the description of a freedom fighter), she has not evaded detection completely.

Michael heads straight to the planning room via the tree brances as it's a more direct route. Upon reaching the planning room Michael says, "Emerald will be here shortly," as he knows that Emerald has had to deal with the elevator which is never as fast as Michael is at climbing the branches.

  Mittens is startled at the scary voice's command and nearly loses her balance!  If the Swats hadn't already spotted her, the staggering try-to-regain-balance dance would most certainly have caught their attention.  "But shooting me would set off alarms too!" she objects.

  Once she regains her balance she decides to obey the scary voice and heads in the direction she thinks it came from.  "Voice doesn't sound like a badnik," she thinks to herself, "But doesn't sound like a Freedom Fighter either.  Must be some vigilante.  Overlander no doubt."  Mittens fails her attempt at forgetting all the racist things she's heard about Overlanders and assumes the worst...  after all, it DID just threaten to kill her for very selfish reasons.