BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR ❅ PART 2

[nightmods]

BEYOND THE SHADOW YOU SETTLE FOR

Alarms blare and red alert lights flash and illuminate hallways. The intruders have either escaped the traps or avoided them altogether and are invading.

It still won't be easy for the Guardians. There are armed checkpoints to overcome and giant security doors to figure out how to unlock or break through.

Once they're past the initial security checkpoints, the place is a maze of hallways that contain cells with captured myths that need to be freed (some friendly and some unfriendly), offices with computers and tablets that can be hacked or stolen, science labs with myths being experimented on and technomagical devices of unknown purpose, archival rooms with useful (and potentially cursed) tomes and artifacts, and storage rooms with the plundered belongings of many myths captured over time.

Some of the magical artifacts and Prometheus devices can be used against their forces and used to help the captured myths.

For those that would like to be extra helpful and let others know where security forces are congregating (or to cause a little chaos) several redundant security rooms have screens showing video from closed circuit monitoring. Provided they knock out the guards in each room, they can potentially maneuver them to consoles for the fingerprint panels and retinal scanners that would allow them to unlock cell doors on many of the cell blocks.

Given that the the master unlock for all cells requires the base's Director's security bypass, it'll be useful if several groups do this if they want to mass unlock all the cell blocks.

Some captured myths will also have to be comforted. Others may need to be chased as they escape their cells, rush past, and go on a rampage.

And of course the myths will have to figure out what to do with the escaping staff that isn't security, all of them running for exit stairways and elevators to the outside world or to escape magical portals, whatever's closest and ensures the best chance of survival. Some of these staff members are simple office drones, handling the minutiae and bureaucracy of a large organization like this. Others are even lower on the organizational ladder, like the janitorial staff. But some like the base leadership, scientists, and guards, have a much more active hand in the treatment of the captured myths.

The more aggressive escaped myths will make a beeline for the base staff, to go after them in revenge. The Guardians will have to figure out what they want to do in response.

In any case, there are myths to be freed, artifacts to be pilfered, intel to be gathered, and decisions to be made.

This base of Project Prometheus is going down.

OOC DETAILS

OOC PLOTTING POST

❅ Format: Use prose or actionspam as desired.

❅ Environment: Please feel free to use the plot as an open and flexible environment, and simply ask for anything the requires specifics or might affect the full facility so the mod can provide accurate intel and keep track of the evolving situation during the plot. Players should feel free to largely do what they want. If they want to access and manipulate certain aspects of security, question Prometheus npcs, information gather from captured myth PCs, etc, they can request to do so.

❅ NPCing: This part of the plot will have limited mod npcing, for moments people decide to do in the plot, like getting info from Prometheus npcs or breaking into and messing with security. There will be a thread to request either npcing or information to use in self-npcing from the mod. The mod will decide whether to npc or if players can just self-npc with provided info. The mod will automatically comment in after each round of PC tags unless asked to pause for more PC tags. The mod will use prose for npcing but players don't have to match.

❅ Powers: Now that they've escaped the trap rooms, everyone's powers will work as normal and all their devices and artifacts like the globes will work.

❅ Myths: You can assume rescued myths match their RL myth counterparts. If I need to use a myth later on and make them different from what's been established, we can handwave there are just variations within the same type of myths sometimes. The only thing I'd like to limit is two things:

1) Using some of the big individual myths in mythology in case they need to be used later or I have plans for them. Specific gods and named folk figures, etc. But myths that are just general, like general nymphs, brownies, fae, etc, you can kinda go ham with.

2) Try to be respectful and avoid using myths that still feature heavily into IRL belief systems and cultures like wendigo. Please be thoughtful and maybe do a quick google about whether something would be offensive. There are plenty of other myths from ancient societies to use with less baggage, like creatures from Greek mythology.

❅ Collars: Rescued myths will have power blocking collars that need to be broken or the rune design on them must be scratched when they're freed, to give their powers back.

❅ Resources: Elle will be their man in the chair acting as a coordinator for the mission on the games. Players can handwave that important information was conveyed to or from Elle.

Mini-globes: Mini snow globes the size of marbles will have been given to everyone to use to transport myths out as well as emergency transport to the Pole. For those who don't carry storage with their normal outfits, they'll have been given fanny packs to carry them.

Devices: Courtesy of Miguel, there are mini bombs; spy bots that can fly and scout ahead, transmitting video to their comms; and elemental handheld devices can use to cause localized effects of extreme freeze or extreme heat. The latter is hot enough to melt the door looks to the thick cell doors.

Magic crystals: These can float over the hand to guide the Guardians towards other myths, as well as provide the location of their home habitats so Guardians can tell the snowglobes to right location to transport them home.

Comments

Re: Closed to Boimler

[antigravboy]

Boimler almost puts down his PADD to duck and reach for his nearby phaser but fortunately, it's someone he recognizes. He hasn't really introduced himself but he at least knows he's another Guardian.

He goes back to tapping away.

"Uh, yeah, this seems to be a place where they tortured sentient beings. I'm not going to dignify it by calling it scientific experimentation because science doesn't deserve that."

Does he sound pissed? Because he's pissed. It's a righteous fury, the result of someone from a utopian society full-tilt getting exposed to the kind of horror that would've been acceptable during The Bad Times. The outrage is in part because he knows it can be better, and knows people can - and should - evolve past xenophobia like this.

"I'm downloading as much data as I can. The more we know about what they know, the better."

[divasmio]

Apollo visibly winces, feeling ill at the thought of what kind of nasty experiments were being done on the myths trapped here. It had been sickening enough to see a beautiful, ethereal goddess being reduced to nothing but a damn door lock — What other horrific indignities were being performed here?

"Good call," Apollo says with a nod. God of Knowledge would definitely appreciate a better understanding of what goes on here, so he knows just how hard he needs to smite it once all their prisoners are free.

Speaking of assholes, through the door, Apollo can hear a distant sound of a crowd approaching. They don't sound particularly close, but they don't seem to have much time.

Apollo glances back at the door, then to Boimler. "Keep doing what you're doing." He darts over to some kind of equipment he can't identify, but it's big, very heavy, and not bolted to the ground. With a little exertion of godly strength, he's able to push it up against the entrance to block it off, then goes about arranging more of the furniture and equipment into a haphazard blockade.

[antigravboy]

Boimler only briefly glances out of the corner of his eye.

"Good thinking, we may have company soon. Which means a firefight. Which I hate. Absolute worst part of the job."

He didn't join starfleet for the phaser fights or space battles with the Romulans. Absolute hair in your food, gum on the bottom of your shoe, bullshit shenanigans.

"This database is huge but I'd like to scrape as much of it as I can."

[divasmio]

"It's not so bad," Apollo says as he drags some more equipment around to construct a second structure between Boimler and the blockade, "when you've got the tactical advantage."

The second haphazard structure is a barricade of overturned cabinets and tables, designed to (hopefully) keep their weapons from hitting Boimler. Apollo climbs up onto it, readying his bow and pulling an arrow from his quiver. "Scrape away. Lick the bowl clean if you've got to. I don't want a single crumb of data left on their servers when you're done."

It sounds like the soldiers are getting close. Apollo nocks an arrow, back muscles flexing under his tank top as he draws it back and holds it taut, aiming for the door.

[antigravboy]

There is the ghost of a smile and a shake of his head at Apollo's words, even if he still doesn't look up. The only reason he doesn't react more is the absolute dire cruelty in the data he was just looking over.

Still, he raises an eyebrow but his tone is amused. "Descriptive."

Lick the bowl clean he will. He's clearing out as much as he can. He may not be able to wipe the entire facility's computers - so much is sectioned off - but hopefully between himself and the others that are doing it in different labs, they'll get all or most of it.

"Okay! I've got it downloading. I don't need to babysit it at this point; it just needs a little time. It should hopefully be done by the time we fight our way out of here."

When a route is clear, he'll grab it and they can run. He leaves it down on the floor, close to the console it's plugged into, blocked by multiple barricades.

And now for the part he hates. He'd initially needed both hands so he left his phaser on the counter near him in case he needed to grab it. He picks it up and gets in position behind some of the cover Apollo set up, standing behind the metallic tower of some kind of device. It looks pretty solid. Hopefully its casing is thick enough to not just get shredded by bullets.

Almost immediately, a guard kicks open the doors and a group rushes in, opening fire.

Boimler's expression is grim, because this is, well...terrifying. Just like lots of things are terrifying. Just like it'd been terrifying when he'd been on the crew of the Titan and he and the away team had been cornered by homicidal Pakleds.

But this is also important. The more of this data they get, the more they might know how to stop these people. This can't be the only base an organization this big has. And they likely won't give up

Bullets start to ping around them. He swings around when he hears them reloading, laying down phaser fire. A few guards drop. He has his phaser set to stun out of a mix of preference and principle. If he needed to set it to kill, he would, but the guards being solidly down and out might be enough.

He really needs a distraction from the fact he can hear metallic pings right near his head every time he comes out from behind cover to fire, though.

"So!" he calls out over the gunfire. "I never caught your name!"

[divasmio]

Apollo's already got an arrow nocked and drawn when the door's kicked open, and he lets it loose, bringing down the first guy charging in. In a smooth motion, without even pausing to aim, he grabs another arrow and fires it, and another, and another, striking true each time. To even draw a long bow once takes immense strength, and he's doing it inhumanly fast.

"Apollo," he calls to his companion with a bright grin. "And you?"

[antigravboy]

Boy, those arrows are flying fast. He can't really afford to spare a glance at his surprise fight partner to watch him drawing, but they're certainly firing out there crazy-fast.

"Brad Boimler, an Ensign of the USS Cerritos." Back home, people would automatically place that as 'starship' and 'Federation,' so he adds a little extra. "It's a spaceship. But you can just call me Boimler."

No titles for the civilians and usually nobody in his day-to-day uses his first name unless they're close and things have Gotten Real.

It takes an extra second for Apollo's name to register due to the, y'know, firefight, but it's helped by the speed with with the arrows are flying...

"Apollo as in casually like the Greek god Apollo, like just the same name? Or as in scarily like the Greek god Apollo?" Maybe someone with similar powers named after him. "Or - I'm gonna go out on a limb here because of the whole state of our group's everything - someone who could arguably be considered the actual Greek god Apollo?"

[divasmio]

"The last one," Apollo says with a wink, drawing three Arrows from his quiver and firing them off at once, striking three soldiers. Was he showing off? Maybe. Yes.

An ensign? Apollo was going to make a quip about how much he likes sailors, but then the word spaceship is dropped and his grin just gets wider. "I'll have to ask about the spaceship stuff later. My world hasn't even gotten to Mars yet. In the meantime..."

He continues firing. The forces keep coming, but at least the door is bottle-necking them so they can't charge in at once. "Did you see any other exits while you were working?"

[antigravboy]

"They seem to have all the exits covered. We're going to have to just clear one of them out."

And then they'll have to book it.

"I also have so many questions about the god thing, so I'm definitely picking your brain if we survive this, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but if you have actual magic, I'd love to scan you for science."

He may not be a science officer but he still loves him a good scan and the readings on magic he's taken so far will probably be studied by Starfleet for years to come.

The PADD starts beeping to warn that it's close to done.

"But that'll have to happen later! We're almost done here." He dives over the monitor the last of it. There are a few final beeps and he unplugs it. "Pick an exit that seems to have less unfriendlies and we'll focus on clearing a path."

It's not a bad course of action. They just have no idea yet that everything is about to get even more dire.

[divasmio]

Apollo nods, climbing to the top of the barricade and standing right in the line of fire to start picking the nasties off en masse, focusing on a nearby exit that looks promising. Of course, even in Apollo's dexterous hands, a bow and arrow isn't exactly a rapid-fire weapon — Even if he's firing multiple arrows at an impossible pace.

When a crowd starts to form at the base of the barricade, Apollo kicks over one of the file cabinets, sending it tumbling down onto some unfortunate mercenaries.

"Man, if I didn't hate everything this organization stood for," Apollo says, surprisingly cheerful as he continued to mow down enemy forces, "I'd really feel bad for their HR department tomorrow morning."

[antigravboy]

"Oh oh! That's, uuuh, I'm trying to remember from seeing it on TV. 'Human resources,' right? The people that'd have to 'hire' more people?"

There were certainly departments or parts of organizational structures that recruited and handled staff or volunteers but society was so wildly restructured in his era that single names or concepts about them weren't quite as ubiquitous and they really wouldn't have equated humans to being a resource. Very gauche.

It'd be more likely to be "Personnel Management" "Recruiting" something like that.

"Calling people 'resources.' Capitalism! So weird."

They're making progress on clearing the door but one of the soldiers, before he's shot down, aims his gun on purpose at a juncture of boxes and wires near the ceiling.

It blows and the structure it's attached to, a translucent blue column with a glowing ring going up and down it, starts to make a dangerous humming noise. The rings stop flowing in a smooth pattern, vibrating in one place. The blue light turns a dangerous red and klaxons start to blare.

"Oh no," says Boimler, his face falling. He quickly flings himself back behind cover and whips out his tricorder, taking readings.

[divasmio]

"Gotta say, I'm looking forward to a future where Capitalism is considered weird!"

Of course, when the shit starts hitting the fan, Apollo's cheerful demeanor dissipates. He glances Boimler doing the thing with his little science thing, then glances back toward the exit.

"We've almost got a clear path. I can carry you if we need to go fast."

[antigravboy]

His eyes go wide and then his eyebrows furrow in focus. He practically dives for the hub, all attempts at looking graceful tossed to the wind. Fortunately, the area he has to access is behind cover. He practically rips off a panel with his bare hands to get a crack at the wires and circuitry inside. 

For the first time, he can be almost grateful he got partially assimilated - he's stronger now. He doesn't have to screw around with fasteners. He can break some cords with his bare hands - and heavier materials if he uses the the assimilation tubules, since they're strong enough to break through most substances.

Even though his movements are frantic, they are purposeful, and without trying - because he has no time to try - his voice takes on a quality it didn't have a second ago. His eyebrows furrow in concentration.

Urgent but not panicked. Purposeful. Firm.

"We're not leaving yet."

Commanding.  

It's happening too fast for him to think about trying to act the part of commanding officer. The priorities of "the victims, the team" are too big. He doesn't even think of imitating a famous captain.

This is all him. His training. His continually-accumulating experience. What his priorities have become. He falls right into doing what he needs to do: communicating to Apollo what the new change is, why it's important, and what is now expected of him.

The what:

"This was in their files. The prison shields and all their experiments drew massive amounts of power; they have localized power hubs in all their science labs, with backup power banks, in case of central power failures."  

The consequences:

"He destroyed the central regulator and the battery is overloading. If it detonates, it'll take out at least three or four of the surrounding cell-blocks with it - and the others weren't even close to finished evacuating them yet."

What is expected of him. He turns only briefly to lock eyes, expression stern. There is no room for questioning this, for arguing against it. He doesn't know this guy but he doesn't need to: he knows Apollo agreed to be here, doing this, and knew both the stakes and the risks.

That's enough to expect him to follow through. He doesn't try to emphasize this with a shout. He doesn't need to, to make it clear he expects to be obeyed.

"Hold the doors, for as long as you can." They might not be able to make it out of this if they can't run, and more soldiers are sent at them. But if they can at least disarm this before dying...

He looks back and gets to work. "I can reroute power to disperse the overload back through their central power systems but I need time."

[divasmio]

When Boimler dives, Apollo stays put, pulling his eyes away from the fight for just a moment to see what he's up to. If Apollo hadn't been watching the shift as it happened, he's not sure he would have believed it. Boimler had certainly been capable before when scraping data from the servers, and even when firing at the enemies — but upon assessing the situation, it was like Boimler transformed into a completely new person. Not just capable, but authoritative.

It's certainly compelling. Apollo wonders how often Boimler gets like this. He would love to see it again.

However, that's a train of thought for another time. There's a disaster that needs to be averted. When Boimler gives his command, Apollo nods and readies his bow. "Yes, sir!"

He steadies himself on top of the barricade, taking aim again, and setting off his rapid-fire shots.

[antigravboy]

Boimler briefly glances up and sees -- something he needs to file away for later examination because you really can't be distracted by Greek Gods majestically doing archery when you have to effectively disarm a bomb.

He tries to pry a deeper cover off something inside the unit and a sizzle, the "Ss!" he hisses out, and the way he rips his hand away makes it clear it's already overheating.

Thinking quickly, he whips his uniform top off to use as a glorified pot holder, to insulate his hands as he rips out a metal cover and tosses it and his lightly smoking uniform top to the side. He doesn't bother putting it back on again and is only in the sweaty uniform tank top underneath as he goes back to manhandling wires, cutting them in places and retwisting ends together, holding tools in his mouth when he needs his hands free.

He slaps his comm on and speaks when he takes the tools out of his mouth again.

"Elle, the guards damaged one of the power hubs in the lab on Level 34, Section 2A. It's overloading, I'm working on discharging the energy and deactivating the battery but if it goes, it'll take out cellblocks Beta, Zeta, and Gamma. Have the others focus on emptying those cellblocks first and let me know when they're done. If you can send us some extra backup to keep the guards off our backs while I work, do it, but prioritize evacuation first. I already have Apollo here covering me."  

There's an affirmative on the other end and he focuses all his attention on his work, yanking more and more out of the unit. Between the heat radiating off the components, the bodily manhandling he has to do, and the pressure, his skin starts glistening with sweat before long.

"Almost there..."

The machine is making an alarming whine, growing in volume, but he's already working at top speed, and the sureness of his hands doesn't falter. There just isn't time to let any anxiety over it get to him.

[divasmio]

Apollo hears the sizzle and Boimler's cry of pain. He has to force himself not to look back to check on him and focus on the battle. Still, he mutters a soft song of healing for him — Apollo has no idea if that power has even returned yet, but worth a shot.

While he certainly wouldn't mind backup, Apollo's pretty pleased with himself for single-handedly holding back the soldiers thus far.

"I've got things handled up here. You can do this."

[antigravboy]

There are some clicks and a loud crackle. Then the high-pitched whine starts dying down. The warning lights on the device change back to their neutral colors and then start to power down.

"Got it!" His voice is shrill but with delight. "It's funneling the power back through the main conduit. Once the battery's drained, it'll power down for good, though we might have to worry about some feedback that could cause -" There's a high-pitched whistling sound, like a tea kettle about to blow and Boimler's eyes go wide. "That!"

He doesn't have time to explain, he just acts, launching himself up and away from the equipment.

"Down!"

He tackles Apollo towards the other side of the one barricade. Having the layers of them that Apollo set up is really doing them a favor here - he manages to get a barricade between themselves and the generator in one direction but there are still some between them and the guards in the other.

There's really no graceful way to fall, he sort of just falls right on top of him and fortunately, the bow and quiver just fall slightly to the side rather than breaking. As he shields him, there's a small explosion that pings light shrapnel around them but the tea-kettle shrieking stops after that.

And then he's left in a super awkward position. With someone that, again, he can't help but notice is excessively, dramatically good-looking.

"Yeah, uh. Sorry. Stopped the antimatter explosion but there were was still a little too much internal air pressure from it overheating. Just...locally."

He starts to awkwardly extricate himself.

[divasmio]

It was nice to have a warning about the explosion, but the tackle was a surprise. Apollo's eyes go wide as the bow clatters from his hand, and he looks up at Boimler with wonder. He's quite attractive up close, too. Apollo smiles, eyebrows up in interesting.

"Thank you," he says as the two of them start to sit up. "I wouldn't have known to—"

A sound from above draws Apollo's attention, and he glances up to see a guard at the top of the barricade. Without even a vocal warning, Apollo pushes Boimler back down and grabs his bow, straddling him as he nocks an arrow. The longbow is heavy, and the draw requires immense strength. The rippling of his muscles is clearly visible through his own tank top as he aims.

There's less than a second between Apollo hearing the noise and the guard topping backwards from the barricade, arrow in his chest.

[antigravboy]

Sneaky so-and-so. That guard had to have taken advantage of the brief time they were down to get close to the barricade.

Boimler had been closer to being on his feet so when the guard loomed over the barricade, he was the one in the line of fire, but just as quickly, he was the one knocked down to safety this time, and then he was being straddled (sensible, expedient, it let Apollo quickly sit up to fire an arrow), watching a literal god draw his bow in a godly way and shoot an arrow, godly muscles rippling, visible thanks to his little tank top.

Now that he isn't preoccupied by essentially disarming a bomb, now that all he can do is look up at a god straddling his body, muscles taut, he thinks, Oh NO.

Oh no, he's hot.

Fuck me.

(That was the "Well fuck me" way of saying "fuck me," he tells himself, not the other kind. He tells himself. Definitely telling himself.)

Perfect. Great. He absolutely isn't going to be kept up at night imagining some Neoclassical thighs tight against his sides. He absolutely wanted to know what it felt like to be straddled by a Renaissance painting.

Super.

(This absolutely would've happened to Kirk. This is a Kirk type thing. But Kirk would be able to make some kind of quip and charm the straddler and he is sooo not Kirk.)

"Good shot."

Someone please shoot me.

[divasmio]

Apollo steps away from Boimler and gets to his feet, He doesn't miss that look in the man's eyes, and is pleased to know he's still got it.

"Thanks." He offers a hand to help Boimler stand, tossing him a flirty smile. He has enough self-control to keep himself from winking. Being shot at isn't really a situation that calls for a wink. "Good job turning the explosion into a smaller, more manageable explosion."

[antigravboy]

He takes his hand and is helped up. Annnnd maybe holds on a second too long before drawing away to get back to it.

Ignore the smile. Focus on the mission. Focus.

"Oh, we're great at that in Starfleet," Boimler says, voice wry, expression amused as he takes stock of their current situation. "Turning explosions into other types and sizes of explosions."

Fortunately, that appeared to be the last guard, the generator had powered down completely, and they got what they came for.

Boimler whisks his scorched uniform top - now no longer hot - back on and redoes the velcro, then grabs his phaser and the PADD With the stolen data.

"We should get going, before more guards come. They still need help with the rest of the evacuations and we need to get this data back to the Pole."

[divasmio]

It's a shame he has to put the shirt back on, but in situations like this, there are priorities. "If only more solutions could be solved that way," he says with a soft laugh. "But speaking of solving problems..."

He glances back at the computer terminal, holding up his bow and nocking another arrow. "A computer virus isn't much different from any other plague, right?"