"Dammit," Viper mutters, as he gestures Grid to lay Mitose down and pulls the hypo from it's place at his belt. "This was supposed to be a simple in and out! We've got to get Binary out of there!"

He takes a deep breath and prepares to give Mitose the shot.

With his headphones on, Binary can hear every word.  He says into his microphone, "Don't worry about me.  Get those disks and find the others that escaped.  I--"

He is suddenly cut off.

X says, "Maintain radio silence!  That Agent has Binary's--"

"Yes," a voice says slowly, "I do."

Viper gives Mitose the shot.  Mitose begins to get a stronger hearbeat and he moves slowly, but he is still only half-conscious and unable to move or speak.  His wounds, despite the binding, still bleed from the numerous bullet holes.

The light on the elevator moves to the arrows pointing toward the "L" after Grid pushes the button.

Viper has two more shots at his disposal.

The big man pointedly switches off his radio mike so tha tthe Agent cannot hear what he's about to say. Deep brown eyes turn to regard his three companions,

"That Agent will be down our throats now he knows we have the disks.  I think we need to try a red herring to buy us some time.  Stay put, don't move."

He swtiches his radio back on.

"X.  Forgive the break in protocol, but we haven't got time for the elevators before the bombs go off.  The four of us are splitting and heading to take out the demolitions team.  We'll need you to guide us.  Agent guys or not, this is our only hope."

The lie rolls off Grid's tongue easily, like a used car salesman duping some shmuck from his hard earned cash.

Viper shrugs and makes sure his AK is ready to fire. No telling, it might work. More importantly, maybe the Agent will leave Binary, and the man can escape.


(OOC: I'm leaving on a camping trip this weekend. I'll be back sometime Monday.)

Jade props her Thompson on some rubble and aims back and forth toward the hallways, ready to shoot at anything that appears while they wait for the elevators.

"The Agent is going back to Binary's office," X says.

"Yes, he is," Agent 'Mulder' says into the microphone.

"Binary's life signs are still strong," X says, ignoring the outburst.

The slow and methodical voice responds, "And why would we want to kill him when there are so many other...productive...things we can do with him?"

Still ignoring the taunt, X says, "The demolitions teams are moving to the east and west walls.  They are setting up explosives now."

Lazarus looks at the others, fright the clearest emotiom on his face.

A minute of relative silence passes.  You hear muffled sounds from the left as the soldiers are setting up.  You hear the hum of electricity around you and the occasional groan from an injured soldier.

X breaks out over the radio.  "Binary is on the move.  One of those Agents is taking up the stairwell to the northwest.  The other Agent is still there.  If you're going to take out the demolitions crews, you better do it fast.  But I wouldn't advise it.  They're covering every angle with their weapons.  The remaining Agent is leaving the room..."  He pauses.  "And there are four soldiers creeping down the hallway in front of you and to the right."  (The same hallway Laz and Jade just ran down.)  "Looks like they're coming back for their squad."

Looking down, you see the injured form of the one-armed marine and the unconscious marine down the hall to your right, and the two dead ones.

Just under six minutes until the elevators arrive.

Viper scowls and looks at his fellows. Whispering fiercely, "We've got to get Binary. We can't just let those bastards take him! Even if he wasn't one of us, he knows everything about Zion!"

Viper hefts the two grenades and peeks down the hall the soldiers are in. "X," he says into cellphone mic, "range to the 4 soldiers?"

X answers, "85 feet north up the westernmost corridor.  Group 2 is at the east central area.  Um, just so you recall, they've got very powerful explosives.  Be careful."

Grid looks down on Viper, his own expression turning fierce, "You are mistaken. Binary WAS one of us.  He was leader of this mission and his instructions where to get those disks out of the Matrix no matter the cost." His expression softens for a moment as do his words, "We all new the risks when we went on this mission."

Despite his words, you get the distinct impression from his body language, that Grid would like nothing more than to chase down Binary and take out the soldiers and agents holding him.

"Binary said the disks are more important," Jade says with a quick look at Lazarus.  "That's why we left him to begin with."

She points her gun to the hall on the right where X indicated the marines were coming.  "Besides," she says,  "I think we have more urgent problems."

Jade calls out, "Take your men and leave!  We don't want anymore trouble.  We won't harm you if you just take them and leave us alone."  She hopes that her feminine voice will help them believe her.

Lazarus' gaze shifts to Jade, "You are joking right, we should make a run for it and that is that. Grid is right, the mission is of paramount right now, not Binary and the only way to do this is to run not negotiate."

"Yes," Jade says.  "I agree.  But we're backed in a corner with marines about to open fire on us.  Maybe they'll take their wounded and believe that we'll die in the explosion instead of hunting us down.  Then we can go up the elevator.  I don't think we can save Binary now."

"I hope you are right," Grid says to Jade, "I would prefer not to have to kill anymore people."

He checks his newly acquired M-16 making sure it's right to go, "But let's be wary all the same."

He takes a few steps to the corridor corner and crouches down, looking up the way the soldiers are approaching, he readies his weapon.

You hear a voice say, "We have a situation here.  Requesting orders."  You hear hushed whispers in a radio handset, and a response.  There are a few tense moments as you wait.  Then you hear the sergeant say, "Affirmative.  Over and out."

An M-16 hangs around the corner by its cord.  It drops to the ground.  With both hands raised, the sergeant steps around the corner.

"We're going to take our marines back."  His left hand has been bandaged, but it is bleeding through.  He nods, and another marine steps forward with hands raised.

Behind them, two marines crouch on the ground with their M-16's pointed directly at you.

The sergeant and other marine creep slowly toward you and the three marines on the ground nearby, one killed by Xan, one by Mitose, and the one-armed marine.  Only the latter is still alive, and he is not in good shape.

The party stands with guns pointed back at the marines.  You are in a standoff.  The sergeant pauses to see if you will let him by.

Jade keeps her machine gun trained on the marines toting their guns in the hall, but she takes a step or two back to let the sergeant through.

Viper plainly isn't happy about throwing Binary away, but keeps his peace as the situation with the Marines unfolds. In particular, he moves across the hall from the others before the Sergeant comes around the corner, widening the field of fire to improve the group's chances of survival if it goes south.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:45, Sat 05 June 2004.

Grid doesn't move.

"You can get your marines, but we want our companion that is with the Agent returned to us unharmed."

"We don't have any connection to the agency," the sergeant replies.  "I won't make a promise to you that I can't keep, but I'm sure he will be treated humanely according to his crimes."

He and the other marine begin dragging the marines through the rubble and back to the hall.  You can tell it will take a couple of minutes.

X pipes up in your ear, "I've lost...and the other agent."  There is a lot of static.  X is breaking off.  "Don't...where he is. ...disappeared."

Lazarus looks up at the counter to see how much time they have left; his left hand slips into his jacket wrapping around his beretta.

Just as Lazarus looks around and the marines are pulling back the first three bodies nearest you, a voice crackles over their radio (and the radio taken by Viper).  "Demolitions are set and activated.  You have 10 minutes to evacuate."

The sergeant looks up at you in anticipation, knowing his cover's just been blown, since of course he didn't know you already knew about the explosives.  He nods to the marine assisting him, and they continue dragging the bodies.

9:58, 9:57...

The clock is now ticking.

Grid looks back over his shoulder at the lifts, "X! How long until the lifts arrive?  Do we have more hope of running out using the stairwell?"

"Four minutes, twenty-two seconds," X answers.

The ominous voice of the Agent says into your earphones, "Plenty of time."

X continues, "The stairwell would take you a long time considering the hundreds of meters down you are.  I thought you were taking out the demolitions teams?  They're starting to head for the northern elevators now."

[Note: X was also apparently deceived by Grid's attempt to trick the Agent.]


Reminder:  It takes 7 minutes, 12 seconds for these elevators (the service elevators) to make a one way trip down to or out of the underground facility because they are slow and because you are so far down.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:26, Wed 09 June 2004.