X opens his mouth to answer the question about ETA, but just then Locke comes walking in from the corridor.  X quickly shoves the sniper rifle into Lot's hands.

You feel the gradual deceleration of the Hyperion and then a lift as it starts to rise.

"We should be over the drop site in under seven minutes," Locke says.  He leads you back through the computer room and to a sealed room with hatches in the floor.

"We've just picked up their trace signals, but plugging it into a map has made the situation a little...different than we expected.  We are nearing the border of the fields, where all the humans are kept in pods.  These scientists appear to be hiding in a deep hole or pit of some kind."

Locke opens some metal cabinets and begins hauling out thick rope attached to hooks.

"About a hundred feet down.  You can repel down there, give them a line, and be back up in no time."

Hammer walks in behind Locke.  "Tell them about the catch."

"Yes, of course," Locke says.  "We will be sitting ducks.  If there is a delay, we may need to drop your lines and retreat and then come back for you later."

"The other catch," Hammer urges.

"The machines don't appear to have any traces going down into the pit.  It's a safe haven from them for some reason.  Too bad we can't fit the whole Hyperion down there.  We don't know why the machines don't go down there, but it can't be good."

"Not good at all," Hammer agrees.  "Machines aren't afraid of nothin'."

"But we think they resist going down there," Locke continues, "because our scanners have detected several broken Sentinels down there."

"Hacked to pieces," Hammer clarifies.  "By something."

"So those scientists may also be sitting ducks," Locke concludes.

Mitose listens to the briefing, brow furrowing as it continues on, and gets bleaker.  After a moment, he speaks.

"I have never been a scientist...but could that Sentinel No-FLy Zone be due to electromagnetic activity?  I mean, if the threat was merely physical, would the machines not simply increase their numbers?" Mitose looks at the crew, with a small shrug, "It's possible the Sentinels are being hacked into for their parts, AFTER they've been brought down, isn't it?  Just a thought..."

He falls silent, and closes his eyes for a moment, centering himself for the task ahead.  Pushing aside the knowledge that this was far more dangerous than the last mission.

Laz's expression gets darker and darker as he hears all the details of the mission. This is worse than what they experinced in the Matrix. He attempts to speak up but is cut off by Mitose who says exactly what he was going to say. He adds his own two cents a few seconds later, "This thing could be a help to us, it obviously hasn't hurt the scientisists."

"I just hope you're not down there long enough to find out," Locke says, his head turning sadly toward the cold storage area of the bodies from your previous mission.

Jade says, "I think you said something like that last time, and look what happened.  I just hope we're risking our necks for a good cause."

She looks to see how many ropes they will be descending and how many on each rope.

There are two "hatches."  Up to four ropes can be attached and lowered from each hatch.

"I know," Locke says in a regretful tone.  "And I hate being wrong.  But there are also unknown factors here, just like there were then.  We can only hope for the best."

The Hyperion stops its ascent and begins moving horizontally again.  You are now moving over open air towards the drop zone.

In the cockpit of the Hyperion, Snow watched as they neared their destination, the landscape of grey blurring beneath them. He released himself from the co-pilots seat with a practiced motion and made way for his replacement to take his place.
Take care of her ok? he said with a slight smile playing on his pale, bloodless lips then turned and walked to the door.

Snow only needed a few moments to gear up before he appeared in the briefing room. He waited for the Captain's acknowledgemeant before saying,
Snow reporting in Sir, thought you might need another hand down there after the last mission's losses.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:15, Sat 21 Aug 2004.

 "Wait a minute," Fault says snapping out of what appeared to be very deep concentration, "broken Sentinels? Torn apart?"
 The disheveled man looks down at the floor in thought, his finger running absently along the rim of his Matrix-jack. "As far as I can tell, that leaves us with two possibilities:
 "A, there is an electromagnet down there and the Scientists have been scavenging their parts, or...
 "B, there is a demon down there that eats metal for food, and has been keeping the scientists as pets." Faults eyes glaze over slightly as he looks about the briefing room. "Quickly, we must gather some canteens and bless them."

"Demons?" Jade says incredulously.  "Machines aren't afraid of anything good or evil.  It's just something that threatens them.  And has the power to do so.  Whatever that might be."

 Fault looks as if someone punched him. "You're right, of course," he says disappointedly, his shoulders slumping. "But what then?" he mumbles quietly to himself. "Dragons, imps, gargoyles? No, none of them eat metal..." His voice trails off as he wanders aimlessly about the room, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings.

Laz looks at the newcomer a look of worry on his face, was this guy sane enough to be a part of the team? "Hey Fault, what are you talking about exactly?"

After a long period of silence Lot lays his opinion on the table.  "We can only guess at why the machines have been unable to approach the scientists. We cannot discount the possibility that that scientists might be directly responsible for their own defense.  We should be sure to identify ourselves by mentioning our association with Binary at first opportunity.

 Fault jumps slightly at the sound and turns to face Lazarus. "What? Oh-well-um, just a bit of logical speculation. I just want to make sure we're ready, should something happen down there."
 He places his hand on Lazarus' shoulder and smiles in what you can only assume was meant to be a reassuring manner. "I mean, if we can barely survive an encounter with a Sentinel, how well do you think we'd fair against a minion of the Underworld?
 "And that is where we're going, isn't it, Locke? The Underworld, big hole in the ground?"

Locke looks at Fault with some perplexity.  "In a manner of speaking, yes.  But I've never heard of anything supernatural about it.  Zion itself is far underground, as we all are 99% of our lives.  It is the only safe place for us."

From his position behind Fault, Viper catches Hammer's eye and makes a gesture of administering a shot that seems to say, Can't you give him something?