((Learning: 9, 9, 8, 7, 7, 5 & 5
Learning: 29+15=44 to analyze the remains.
Wu-Wei: 25+10=35 just survivors intuition...
Float: 7-7))

Arkady lets out a sigh of relief with an undertone of disappointment and he watches the insectoid collapse. He walks cautiously towards the shattered remains ans squats down to inspect them a bit closer.

"Hmm... No conventional automatronics, Obviously not a cyborg since there'd be organic parts, some sort of sorcerous construct? Some weird shit blyat."
He tries to remember if he'd read or seen any information that could be relevant to identifying their adversary. You need to know what you're fucking with.

He baffles the remains for a while and takes a turn for the nearest server block.
"Maybe i can found out more usef-" He snaps out of his stroke of curiosity as he looks at Grunt and realizes he was actually shot. "Jesus fuck, You're bleeding! Did your guts take hit? We really need to patch you the fuck up... like... Fucking now! You really don't wanna get shot in a possibly pathogenic environment."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:31, Tue 29 Aug 2017.

"It was a graze," Grunt said blithely, "If I didn't know better I'd swear that was a nemissary."

He looked around.

"Still, at this point there's no chance they're unaware of our presence. You want to see if there's anything useful in the electronics? Eventually they might try blowing the air locks and sticking us on the other side of a void gap."

Arkady looks over the crumbled remains.  He's heard of this before, a long time ago; from some of the demons he's met, from some old texts barely read.  He doesn't know much about them, but the leftover rubble is indicative of the Empty Pawns- the Baidak.  They and their master Sigereth, a Demon of the Second Circle, haven't been seen since before the Exodus.

---

Axeman Defense R3:
10, 6, 6, 4, 3, 2 & 2
*Defense vs Crossfire 26 + Block 10 + AB 5 = 41 vs 64, 2 Ripples - inflated to 5 Ripples via Damage, Destroyed immediately

The axeman lurches forward with the axe raised, but Crossfire's Essence-empowered missile hits it dead on.  The axeman explodes into a million shards of yellowed ivory.

((Hacking: 10, 10, 9, 9, 5, 4 & 1
Clarity in openness 3chi: +10 Learning
Learning: 29+25=54 to hack the servers.))

"Jesus fucking shit it's a Baidak. A minion of Sigereth. This took an interesting turn. A second circle Demon. Can't really tell on which side he's on..." he said with a puzzled tone and points at the human remains they saw as they entered the room.

"I'll check the servers for any useful intel... Hope the security is shit tough. I hate hacking."

He looks around anything that'd represent a mainframe service terminal and gets to work.

The wonderful bit of fireworks had been nice, but it was time for Cosmo to turn his eyes towards the airlock he'd uncovered. That seemed like a more interesting place to poke his head in, though he idly wonders at the odd things the Dead were choosing to throw at them these days.

"If I'd realized they were that fragile, I'd have started with that."

"Lovely, so we have at least one major demon to contend with," Grunt replied as he started inspecting the mess.

The servers take a bit to hack- but the screen by the corpse of the man and the rubble of the Baidak flickers as it shows him some options.  He won't have full access to all the commands in the facility, not by a long shot would THAT shit be allowed here, but some interesting options are given to him from this terminal:

>GAMES
>COMMUNICATIONS
>DOCUMENTS
>FLUSH HYDROPONICS LAB
>FLUSH FACILITY
>FLUSH AIR
>CAMERA CONTROL
>SECURITY ALERT
>SERVER SHUTDOWN
>FACILITY SHUTDOWN
>FACILITY DESTRUCT

The corpse seems to be the server operator judged by his tools, the USB dongle, and a general unhealthy pallor.

---

Meanwhile, Crossfire moves into the airlock.  It's obviously intended for use by normal human baseline.  He can see a few suit lockers are already empty, and have nameplates like "GREENSKIN" and "FIRELANCE".

"Opa chuvak. I'm in. phew."
Arkady lets out a bored sigh and takes a quick sip off his canteen without taking his eyes off the screen.
"Well... Time to multitask. Let's check the cameras while we go deep on the docs. Might be something interesting."

//>
NTab>CameraControl>
NTab>Documents>

"After we're done collecting intel we can just detonate this shithole... Or detonate the servers... Or both Blyat."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:06, Thu 31 Aug 2017.

Cameras give these options:

>CORE
>DORMITORY
>LABORATORIES
>OFFICES
>ENGINEERING
>ARMORY
>HANGARS

The cameras reveal a ghost-town.  Either everyone is off the station or -  wait, the camera flashes to the Core.  At the center of four pillars giving off the blue glow of Cherenkov radiation, a bald-headed boy sits on a chair with a box in his hand.  He looks up at the camera and holds up a sign.

[THOSE WERE STOCK FOOTAGE]

He flicks his hand, showing the next card,

[I PLAY FAIR]

[SO NO CHEATING]

Then the camera to the Core goes out.

Cosmo investigates further, blowing the airlock, if necessary. If this is where the pilots are taking off from, it might be pretty interesting. He might run smack dab into some sort of Abyssal baddie, but... if he got over his head, there was always the Sir Robin route.

"Any luck?" Grunt asked Arkady from where he stood watch on the hatch.

"Blyat. All the cameras were looped so no real luck there... Except for the core, which had some bald kid who says he plays fair. As if this was some game to him... Wait a minute..."

he looks at the Baidak's remains and his expression show sudden clarity which immediately turns to concern.

"That fuckbags master Sigereth... I'm pretty sure he was called something that was related to games... Ah fuck it. I can't recall."

His eyes wander back to the blank camera monitors.

"I'm checking the documents now."

>Documents

"I'm pretty sure he's just the attendant. Sigereth was one of those demons who was also furniture," Grunt replied, "Do we have a speaker system?"

"I'll check that out. If they have, I can try tapping to the intercom."

Arkady turns on the terminal to face Grunt, donning a mischievous grin

"would you like to make an announcement?"

Sure enough, as the two investigate, there's a communication system.  It's a rudimentary mike to the right of the terminal.  With the access that Arkady's gotten they can pretty much deliver a station-wide announcement.  No doubt the poor serf manning the servers would have gotten eviscerated for his troubles if he did, but... it's there for Grunt's use, if he should so desire.

The documents are... wow, that's a lot of documents.  Most of them seem to be religious in nature.  There's thousands upon thousands of these documents, all detailing the private thoughts of some people who call themselves the Immaculates.  It seems this is their major base.  One thing he does get from quickly looking at them- they're renegade Dragon-Blooded who worship the Void.  If there's more information he'd have to spend a couple of hours sifting through the countless files labeled with arcane signifiers, like VERBAL GRINNING MONGOL.

---

Crossfire steps out through some strange prep areas- honestly, he can't figure out what the hell they are, it might just be poor construction- and finally finds himself in a main hall.  To one side there's a large door blocking his access back towards the direction that may lead to his allies.  To the other?  Several dozen imposing, well-built soldiers in featureless white armor with strangely shaped helmets.  The soldiers raise what can only be combat shotguns and aim them at the Infernal!

((Rank 4 Minions.  You go first))

"Can you grab all these directories while I hope this demon is as obsessive as the rest of them?" Grunt asked Arkady before he reached over and activated the intercom, "We both know it is only a game with explicit rules and stakes. State both."

"Aaawwww blyat ok. Shifting through this back at HQ is gonna take fucking AGES!"

Arkady figures that transfering the data on an external drive would take ages on this piece of shit machine so instead he transfers the documents on a single hard drive on the servers. Once done, he locates the designated drive and unplugs the it from the server block, putting it in his larger utility pouch.

"Intel department is gonna shit their pants over this blyat."

He sits back down on a desk chair and lifts his boots on the table, waiting for an answer, if there is going to be any.

((Cosmo Init R1:
Ravenous Wings
10, 9, 8, 8, 3, 2 & 1
*Float 8-8
*Init 10 + Speed 10 + AB 10 = 30
*2 Chi for Occluding the Constellations

Cosmo Attack R1:
10, 8, 7, 7, 7, 5 & 5.
*2 Chi for Strike +10 [Drawn to Oneness]
*Attack 37 + Strike 10 + AB 10 + 10 DtO = 67
*Tactics Marvel (Knockback) 25 + Tactics 5 + AB 10 = 41
*Strike Minions 37 + Strike 10 + AB 10 + 10 DtO = 67))

Wrapped inside the chaos of the storm that came from space, there is no escaping that which the multitudes now face. Out flies dust to blind their aim, then missiles hurry right behind. He seeks to drive them back, the walls will box them in.

Transferring the files is easy enough.  These pieces of shit don't know anything about their system architecture or security.  Hell, all of these are shared!  But Arkady knows from looking that there's a lot more on the network he's not seeing, so he may need to access another terminal.

The voice comes out over the intercom next to Grunt.

"Amongst my bindings includes the order to protect this facility as I see fit.  Given the number of living researchers, I have concluded that protecting this facility by venting the atmosphere and filling the facility with essence plasma is counterproductive to my bindings."  The voice is high and thin, metallic.  "Unfortunately brute-force hacking past my own firewalls to access certain files, images, and camera feeds will change these parameters, and I will be forced to reduce this entire facility to molten radioactive slag.  An Abyssal scientist has done... extensive testing and found that this method is enough to kill anything short of a Yozi-level threat, or at the bare minimum incapacitate and imprison one for several months.  In essence, rocks fall, everyone dies.

For stakes, well.  I wish I could offer you some.  But my bindings forbid me from betting.  Suffice to say you are staking your life against the destruction of this facility.  My strength is arrayed against you.  The Immaculates are arrayed against you.  Set Beckons is arrayed against you.  There's still time to retreat; there's no ante."

---

((Minion Defense:
8, 7, 5, 5, 2, 2 & 2
*Defense vs Strike:  32 + Tactics 20 = 52 vs 67, 1/7 Ripples
*Defense vs Knockback:  25 + Tactics 20 = 45 vs 41, avoids

Minion Attack:
10, 10, 6, 5, 4, 3 & 3
*Strike Crossfire 23 + Tactics 20 = 43))

The minions barely move as Crossfire starts firing those massive bullets into their ranks.  As soon as one is barely hit another quickly steps up to take some of the fire, effectively reducing the amount of damage he deals them to a single shattered soldier- shattered, just like that one outside the airlock.

And as they rotate through their ranks they pump round after round of shotgun shells into the Infernal.

"There's always an ante. Specify the parameters of attack, clearly the facility itself is not the priority since you can slag it," Grunt replied, "A change of ownership isn't an attack after all."

Arkady oversees the exchange between Grunt and the entity, followed with a surprised expression.

He picks up a marker from his pocket, writes something on his arm, and shows it to Grunt with an expression of disbelief.

"R u fuckin srs? U gonna argue with it?"

He shrugs, wipes off the message and writes another, followed by a more serious expression.

"High value intel is localised. Need terminal w/ VIP clearance. We are in a hurry."

"Slagging is preferable to capture in their eyes.  I have a long rule book I must read from, hundreds of bindings in odd parallels and sunk in with long hooks." Sigereth responds to him, "Including the amount I can banter.  I must wish you a good game and hope to see you in the core.  You are on the clock."

The intercom shuts off.

"Always keep demons talking. They're obsessives and it shows you what kind of chain they're on. Rushing into the home ground of a post human strategist before you have to is a nice way to become a drinking story," Grunt said aloud, "But it looks like the hard way it is."

He looked around for a moment, checked his weapons, and walked towards the hatch.

"I'll take point. We should keep an eye out for blast doors, I don't want a sudden change in the maze leaving some of us without backup."

"Can't argue with that blyat. I didn't have much time to do research."

He gets off the office chair and kicks it over in a careless, passive aggressive, manner.

"Time to fuck 'em up and steal their shit,  chuvak. I'm itching to get my hands on their schematics."

He brashly opens the latch on a pouch with a pistol handle sticking out but decides to close it in a respectful manner, rolling up his sleeves instead while approaching the hatch.

"Ready when you are."

The two make their way to the hatch.  After a brief moment fiddling with the controls, it snaps open to reveal a long hallway that crosses another.

Just in front of that intersection is an imposing construct, a good 8 feet tall, clad in heavy armor.  It lifts a huge rifle covered in hoses to a huge shoulder and starts charging up an attack!

((This baidak is a Rank 4 Lesser Legend with Heavy Armor, giving it +2 Ripples.  You're in Hatch zone; you need to CG at least 3 times to reach this Baidak.

Init:
8, 8, 8, 6, 3, 2 & 1
*Mark Target- Arkady:  38 + Awareness 10 + AB 5 = 53; unless Arkady includes a Stealth skill check as a Minor Action during his defense that equals or exceeds this Awareness result, the Baidak has +5 Strike and Arkady has -5 Dodge.
*Init 16 + Speed -10 + AB 5 = 11))