Slavegear 2 - Katsura's Mask

Slasher was standing right at the guard rail of the fire-escape staircase. By necessity, the spotter was heading right for her. And the closer he got, the more his SMG scanned the air, moving right across Slashers face, over and over.

He approached the railing silently and lowered his SMG. The man stopped within an inch of your face, so close you could see the wrinkles on his balaklava, his yellow eyes narrowed as he looked right, at, you, and he stared.

Each second stretched into infinity, as beads of sweat formed on your forehead. You thought if you breathed too loud, he would hear you, your heart beating so trechearously loud, you thought it could give you away.

The man extended his head toward you, frowning, and suddenly, looked left, then right, eyes glossing over you, before he took another step forward, a little to your left and aimed his gun over the railing, his elbow almost brushing over your shoulder.


He aimed down his ACOG scope and aimed his gun right at Geoff, then slowly and methodically scanned every inch of the staircase, focusing on the half broken stair.


"Status." A gravely voice in his earpiece called, loud enough for you to hear.

The spotter didn't answer. He was scowling at Geoff's foot for some reason, his finger began subtly sliding toward the trigger.



Geoff mewed.





The spotter exhaled loudly, dropping his guard and letting his SMG rest on the guard rail and launched into such a creative string of explitives, you found his imagination quite enviable, as he wished death and suffering not only upon the cat, but its parents and descendants too, wishing them to the ends of the world where the sun don't shine.


"5-9 Status" his earpiece clicked again, as Slasher dared to take a step back.

"Cat fucker... rickety fucking stairs" the spotter muttered an incoherent reply.

"You see a cat up there?" The earpiece called, as Slasher began backing away.

"Can't see 'em, but I can hear 'em" the spotter exhaled, scanning the staircase again and aiming his weapon right at Geoff's head.

"Alright, 5-9, the staircase is clear," the Sergeant below called "Move back to your post."


"...roger that boss." The spotter unwillingly lowered his weapon and slowly moved back to his sniper partner. You're not sure what made you think so, but for some reason you thought the spotter looked a little tense and more than a little nervous, for just having discovered a simple cat.




Roksana glided across the roof in silence until she hid behind a series of air conditioner units. The blue glow emanating from strings of light around her body were largely muted and hidden away from direct line of sight, as she danced a small sequence of an old classical waltz.

Your earpiece crackled with static for a moment and a plethora of unknown voices cut in, then disappeared again. A second ticked in silence,then Roksana quietly whispered:

"I've tapped into the comms of the local police department. We should be able to eavesdrop on them rather easily now, just switch to channel 5 on your Data-pad and you should be able to hear them. It should give us a heads-up on their activities."

She paused for a moment, letting the blue glow subside before she drifted toward the far edge of the roof:
"Gamma, Epsi, once you reach ground level and found a nice hidy spot, do be a dears tap into the local CCTV network. Having eyes on our friends in blue should help us stay out of their way."

She fixed her grappling hook on the edge of the roof and began lowering herself down with only a faint buzz, as the roll of wire unfolded.





Almost as soon as Gamma and Epsilon started climbing down the side of the building, they began feeling like this was a very bad idea. The rock and cement indentures were slippery from the rain, old and cracked in several places. You couldn't get a very good grip and you hand or foot slipped several times, as you made your way down.

You're starting to feel like this is a very bad idea that might end in a sudden fall from a 10 story height, at any moment. Climbing down using just your hands and feet seemed like an incredible risk. And while Gamma had extending claws inside her fingertips that reflexively extended and dug into the side of the building, every time she slipped up, Epsilon had no such convenient cybernetic - her Monofilament wire was more likely to cut through any grip she'd try to throw it over.

The twins are now somewhere between the 9th and 10th floor and still a long ways down. Continuing to climb down without any tools, along the side of the building, feels like a really bad idea now, that might end in disaster should you continue.

Kaylee Brown wrote:The spotter exhaled loudly, dropping his guard and letting his SMG rest on the guard rail and launched into such a creative string of explitives, you found his imagination quite enviable, as he wished death and suffering not only upon the cat, but its parents and descendants too, wishing them to the ends of the world where the sun don't shine.

"5-9 Status" his earpiece clicked again, as Slasher dared to take a step back.

"Cat fucker... rickety fucking stairs" the spotter muttered an incoherent reply.

"You see a cat up there?" The earpiece called, as Slasher began backing away.

"Can't see 'em, but I can hear 'em" the spotter exhaled, scanning the staircase again and aiming his weapon right at Geoff's head.

"Alright, 5-9, the staircase is clear," the Sergeant below called "Move back to your post."

"...roger that boss." The spotter unwillingly lowered his weapon and slowly moved back to his sniper partner.

As soon as all eyes were off of him, Geoff began moving again, more carefully this time. He tested each step lightly with just his toes first to ensure it was sturdy enough, before he lowered his whole weight down onto it.

Geoff continued making his way down the fire escape, at a much-reduced but far-safer speed.

The twins decide to head back up over risking falling to their deaths. Back on the roof they head over to the same fire escape and very carefully make their way down to the street. As soon as they are down the head to the alley they mentioned, position themselves in a well hidden spot and begin the process of hacking the local CCTV as requested. Once completed they move to meet up with the rest of the group. Always being careful to move silently.

It took a long time to descend 13 floors but you were careful and persistant. The dark clouds above the city continued to rumble with thunder and small showers of rain peppered your sneaking suit now and again, impacting your hood with a silent stacatto, as you made your way down.

Wearing the stealth suit felt a lot more natural now, like it was becoming a part of your body, adapting to your movement and body structure, as if it was a second skin. Its balaclava mask didn't itch anymore and its glasses didn't press painfully against your eyes. The hood didn't obscure your peripheral vision and the cloak faintly waved in the wind behind you in silence. It felt warm, even in this freezing weather, making you suspect the suit either produced heat, or very efficiently conserved your own. Its gloves protected you from cuts but still allowed near perfect tactile feeling of the texture you were coming in contact with.

It really felt like a part of your body now. You've never experienced anything like this and found yourself subconsciously reluctant to ever part with it.



The technician downstairs finally launched his twin-motor flying drone and stretched his head up, as the machine flew vertically up and out of sight somewhere, accompanied by the faintest buzz.


"Drone airborne, moving into position now." a gravely voice spoke in your earpiece and you realized you were hearing the drone operator on the ground.

"SWAT team, check in." a different man called.

"Team 1, ready to breach at point Alpha."

"Team 2, ready to breach at point Beta."

"Team 3... in position."


A helicopter passed overhead again, its projector moving across the large venue up front, filling the air with a painfully loud buzz for a while.


"...Hey..." Matej quietly called over the earpiece as the noise of the helicopter subsided "They can't hear us talk, can they?"

"No." Roksana said, loweing herself down to the alley "Its only one way, we're just eavesdropping on their comms, that's all."



As you continued your climb down, the faint echo of somebodies TV began reaching you, through the open window of somebodies living room and you began hearing snipets of broadcast:

"...-8 months since the disappearance of the population of Ragnveig and the Union government still has no answers-... stationed a heavy cruiser on a permanent basis 10 kilometers off-shore to monitor the situation-... -my daughter visiting her friends and I haven't heard from her since! People don't just disappear, the government is hiding something!-... -WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER!" a hysterical female voice cried. You heard the channel change:

"...-memorial service for the 6 months anniversary of the massacre in Tesian prefecture of Rieupeyroux-"

The channel switched again: "...-the reclusive billionaire Kashiwagi Brice has been spotted recently at a fundraiser in Beusoleil, witnesses describe him as both in poor health and high spirits-"

Another channel: "...-we are eh... aware of the speculation surrounding the event, however... -preliminary findings indicate the likely cause was as a chemical leak from a nearby industrial plant, that altered the neurotransmitter activity in the brain of the victims, causing mass hysteria and hallucinations in the local populace... -the area has since been evacuated and quarantined, with all roads closed off, I assure you, the Polja Groma government has the situation well under contro-.. -WHAT ABOUT THE BAN ON THE PRESS!" another voice cut in over the first "REPORTERS HAVEN'T BEEN ALLOWED TO PHOTOGRAPH THE AREA, WHAT ARE YOU HIDING IN THERE!-"


Geoff had finally reached the ground level and silently stepped off the fire-escape ladder. Several moments later, the twins emerged at the base of the ladder as well.


The Sergeant in charge was still standing halfway inside the SWAT van's cargo compartment, leaning out and squinting at the bank with his hand on his earpiece.

The technician had his back to you, playing around with his joystick as he steered his flying drone somewhere. The Sergeant had you and the technician in his peripheral vision.
It seems the two aren't aware of your presence.





As Gamma and Epsilon sneaked off into an adjacent alley and initiated the hacking sequence, a series of codes flashed before their retinas, in tandem with the blue strings of light around their bodies.

- Initiating Wireless Scan.

- Wireless Network Detected - SKMND PD Prsnct#31_SWAT_TEAM_7

- Establishing Connection.

- Encryption Level 3, FIREHORSE Antivirus detected.

- Constructing Worm virus...

...

...

...

- Complete.


- ATTENTION!



Worm virus allows several options for system breech.


- Option 1: Monitor only - this option will give you visual access to networked CCTV cameras, allowing you to monitor their activity, but not interfere in their function. This option is least intrusive, thus carries minimal risk of your presence being discovered in the network.

- Option 2: Full control - this option will allow you to not only see the CCTV camera footage, but also control the cameras, allowing you to change their visual angle. Since this option will include you sending active commands to the cameras, it carries a medium risk of your discovery in the network.

- Option 3: Sabotage - this option will give you the ability to shut down or loop CCTV cameras. This option carries the most risk, as it interferes heavily with the CCTV operations. The more tampering is conducted, the more likely your tampering will be discovered by a police network administrator, which may then initiate countermeasures against you, including, but not limited to, attempting to shut down your access and trace your location.



- Which hacking option would you like to select?


The helpful text appeared over your retinas.

//Happy Birthday Rain!//

Kaylee Brown wrote:Geoff had finally reached the ground level and silently stepped off the fire-escape ladder. Several moments later, the twins emerged at the base of the ladder as well.

The Sergeant in charge was still standing halfway inside the SWAT van's cargo compartment, leaning out and squinting at the bank with his hand on his earpiece.

The technician had his back to you, playing around with his joystick as he steered his flying drone somewhere. The Sergeant had you and the technician in his peripheral vision.
It seems the two aren't aware of your presence.

Geoff scans the alleyway for the two murder-bots, hoping that they are still locked into the transport rig.

// Happy Birthday Rain! //

(One happy birthday wished)

Inferno facepalmed. He could not believe that the meowing actually did the trick. In his mind, the attempt was idiotic, and that it worked made took all amusement from his pose.

"So much for brain power."

He began to move, making his way across with a purpose. What the purpose was, was not clear, but it didn't seem like the best idea possible.

(Thanks guys!)

The deer sulks forward, "Fuck-it the stairs it is I guess!" She creeps down the steps, carefully distributing her weight as she takes the steps, creeping down each one after the twins before crouching down nearby, watching the police closely, "Is this the target building? Did they just- drop us of somewhere random to find our way there?"

The twins selects Option 3, but don't interact with the system at the moment. They simply keep their pressence in the network to a minimum for now. The option to observe the cameras is sent to everyone's data pad while full control of the system remains only on the hands of the Twins.

Next, the Twins create a passive spyware program that will sit within the network. The ultimate goal of this is to spoof Admin Privilages so they can access all parts of the polive network for the team to use on future missions. Blackmail is also collect just incase.

The pair then return to the rest of the team and observe what is happening.

"The CCTV hacking as requested is completed."

"Your data pads can view and switch between cameras"

"What is the plan now?"

The pair of murder-bots are still there, locked inside their transport rig. They look like huge lumps of metal, the red lights on their flat heads gradually glowing brighter and dimmer again. They appear to be in stand-by mode, the miniguns mounted on their right arms looked especially unnerving.

You can't immediately see the joystick that controls them, but it should be somewhere nearby, you can even see the compartment inside the SWAT van where the bot rig was stored, before it was offloaded outside. The sergeant was standing right at the vans entrance though.

The technician was standing just in front of them, but his eyes were glued to the tiny monitor on his joystick, as he steered the flying drone:

"Lemme see if I can get in through the rooftop skylight." The technician said over the earpiece.

"The suspect is getting erratic, we'll have to breach if this keeps up." the sergeant grunted "How is he even moving, the cocaine in his bloodstream is above lethal levels..." he rubbed his forehead.


An educated guess suggests the control joystick for the murder-bots should be somewhere nearby. Although as an alternative, the good woman with permanently closed eyes could probably hack into them as well, turning your Data-pad into a joystick.

That last part will definitely cause an uproar though, not only because the murder-bots will start moving, but also because you're certain their firewall is state of the art, and someone hacking it in seconds will definitely draw unwanted attention.

There aren't many human hackers that can pull of a feat like that. The local police department will likely start asking questions, which may lead them to an uncomfortable conclusion that a Digital Waltz module was involved.

Not much help to them, if you're never caught. But it will likely make local news that an unregistered human cyborg is running around Sakamundu sporting banned hacking technology.
You decided to make a mental note of this as an option, at least.

Slasher wrote:"Is this the target building? Did they just- drop us of somewhere random to find our way there?"

"According to the map, our target building is 3.4 kilometers north of our position." Roksana said softly, checking her data-pad "I imagine Shi Tong couldn't drop us right on top of it. The headquarters of the military intelligence likely has advanced surveillance equipment around its perimeter, specifically to prevent what we are about to do. Shi Tong likely dropped us off as close as he could muster, without us popping up on their radar. The rest of the way we'll have to cover on foot... just need to get passed this police blockade here..." she poked her head around the corner, to get a closer look at the SWAT van and the bots rig nearby.

Gamma & Epsilon wrote:"Your data pads can view and switch between cameras"

"What is the plan now?"

"Dunno.." Matej shrugged slightly, also leaning around the corner to watch the SWAT van. Being a head shorter than Roksana, he didn't even have to crouch "We could escalate the situation, cause a distraction or just take our chances sneaking past."


"Aww shit, are you kidding me.." Barker exhaled and you noticed his eyes glued to his Data-pad, as he repeatedly flicked through the different camera angles:
"That SWAT team? They're all chromed up to their necks. Sub-dermal armor, eye enhancements, arm and leg cybernetics... and... is that tail?!"


"Eeeeeh... that's a graceful one." Roksana hummed pleasantly as she looked at her own screen. Flipping through your own Data-pad you flicked through the cameras on the venue, until you found one showing a back entrance to the bank. On it, 6 men in heavy police armor stood in a line, their rifles lowered, waiting by the door with a breaching charge.

Their arms and legs were metal, eyes faintly glowed red in the dark. One of them, had a metal puffy tail. Puffy, in the sense that, it had metal petals that when viewed from afar, created the illusion of it looking like metalic fur.

It looked like the tail of a fox, thin at the base and puffy at its far end, almost a meter and a half in length. It moved around constantly, waving in irritation and standing upright, a faint blue glow was emanating from its end, making it seem like its tip was on fire, burning faintly with a blue ember.

"What the hell is that thing..." Barker audibly winced "... is that a plasma cannon? Napalm flamethrower? EMP cannon?"

"Heck if I know," Roksana dreamily shrugged "But I want one."

"Okay, that's a Cyber Squad." Barker decidedly tapped his screen, before looking at you, concern clear in his voice "We don't want to throw down with these guys if we can help it. Could get ugly. They're chromed up the ass. I don't even recognize half the gear they're sporting."

"Its no trouble if we don't get caught." Roksana shrugged, smirking.


"Okay so uh.. what are we doing?" Matej nervously asked, looking back to you over his shoulder.

"Well... if they breach eyes will be on them. The situation should just escalate on its own given that cyber squad is already here. dispite being tense now once that squad breaches those outside will be focused on exits, and the cctv of the squad in action so we should just be able to sneak by without being detected from where we are now..." she hums looking around the building looking for a path through. Her eyes flicking over their defenses looking for gaps from their rearward position.

Geoff keeps close to the wall, and sneaks over to the murder-bots, so that they are between him and the technician.

He then begins looking them over, to see if there is any way to sabotage them that does not involve computer hacking, so that they do not pose a threat to the mission.

Slasher wrote:" she hums looking around the building looking for a path through. Her eyes flicking over their defenses looking for gaps from their rearward position.

It seems you need to cross a large venue to reach your objective. The venue had 6 lanes for cars, three heading in both directions, separated by a row of tall plant-life and palm-trees. The roads were blocked by police cars and tire spikes, all positioned about a kilometer away from you, in either direction. And the venue itself around the bank was filled with a semi-circle of squad cars, with dozens of officers taking cover behind the vehicles, as well as the concrete lane divider, from which the palm-trees grew.

All in all, there were at least 50 police officers on the road, most of them concentrated in a semi-circle around the bank, but some crouched some distance afar, and multiple sniper positions covered the bank entrance.

You could theoretically sneak through, but you would have to go over the plant-filled divider in the middle of the road and move past the occasional officer on the street. The helicopter and the flying drone made their presence known as well, as the roar of their engines echoed across the venue.

Geoff wrote:Geoff keeps close to the wall, and sneaks over to the murder-bots, so that they are between him and the technician.

He then begins looking them over, to see if there is any way to sabotage them that does not involve computer hacking, so that they do not pose a threat to the mission.

A thorough look at the bots showed that sabotaging them would be no quick, or easy feat. Most of their surface was covered in heavy plates of bullet proof armor. You couldn't find any exposed circuitry or obvious access panels on their surface. You imagined they needed to have a power source, or a wifi-transmitter, to receive the incoming commands of their operators, but either of those things were hidden somewhere under its massive armored plates.

The bots looked like walking tanks, with no obvious weakness. Even their heads were armored, flat and lacked a neck. You imagined that with the proper tools, you could separate one of these armored plates from the chasis, exposing the circuitry or access panels underneath, but this would both require time and make enough noise to draw the attention of everyone on the street.

However, you noticed that the bots were locked in a sort of metal cage, they stood inside something that looked like a metal shelf, with straight lined security bars across their legs, torso and feat, and a heavy chain-link double doors that barred their exit.

You could, perhaps, find and sabotage the circuitry of these double doors, locking them firmly, to make sure the robots couldn't actually leave their housing rig. This would prove only an inconvenience however, the bots were strong enough to tear open their cage, if the need arised, but this would slow their process of deployment and their operator would likely be reluctant to destroy their housing cage and would only resort to this course of action as a last resort, if the need to deploy them was extremely urgent or if lives were in immediate danger around him.

At any rate, this would definitely slow down their deployment.
Looking around carefully at the housing rig, you found the access panel that stored its power-supply. Removing or sabotaging this power-supply should stop the rig from releasing its bots.

Epsilon wrote:"Maybe we should go through the sewers"

"The sewers, of course!" Matej excitedly called "We can use the sewers to sneak up all the way to the military intelligence office! We wouldn't have to concern ourselves with anybody finding us then! At least, not until we reach our objective. The enemy intelligence office is sure to have surveillance around its perimeter, but maybe we can even use the sewers to sneak our way inside our target building as well!"


"Mmm..." Roksana mumbled dreamily, looking around, you get the feeling she spends most of her time in her own world inside her head, as the woman slowly pointed at a manhole several meters away, down the alley:
"...we could use that... though opening it without the noise being noticed, might be tricky."

Making sure the technician still isn't looking, Geoff slinks over to the access panel and inspects it more closely, to see if he could prise it open with one of his knives.

With the bot rig placed between you and the technician, it seems the robot shelf is blocking you from the mans view completely, but even if the technician had direct line of sight to you, you were still invisible. And with the man preoccupied with his joystick, you doubt he sees much in his peripheral vision.

"Subject is escalating," the technician's voice echoed inside your earpiece "He's erratic, looks like he's about to shoot a hostage."

"All teams, breach in 5 seconds," the Sergeant called.

On the CCTV camera feed projected onto your data-pad, you noticed the SWAT teams placing breaching charges on heavy doors somewhere. You also noticed your data-pad's screen turning very visible indeed, whenever you tapped its screen to wake it up from sleep mode. A computer screen floating in mid-air, without any visible body, was a strange sight indeed and also ran a risk of exposing your position.

It seems using these stealth suits will take some getting used to.

"Time the manhole opening with the explosion"

"Also, dim your screens"

The Twins move to the manhole and prepare to lift it. Gamma uses her knife as a lever and gets it into position while Epsilon waits to help with the manhole cover. As soon as the explosion goes off the Twins remove the manhole cover as quietly as they can. Once it is opened they both slip inside.

With the coast clear, Geoff reaches out with one hand and begins drawing a finger along the seams of the access panel, to judge where best to stick the knife in.

The deer moves with the twins, drawing her own knife and levering it between the manholes gap on the opposite side of gamma. Her ears perk as she listens for the explosion with the awareness of a pray animal. She bares in mind the roads divider. Should the sewers be blocked for whatever reason, or going back through after they hit their target would be a bad idea, the divider should provide at least some cover.

Inferno was going around on the roofs, making his way over to the main mission, when he noticed something.

There was no one around anymore.

He looked around, making sure his senses weren't deceiving him, before scowling.

"Suits me well enough." He says as he keeps going. "Couldn't stand the sight of them anyway."

Gamma & Epsilon wrote:The Twins move to the manhole and prepare to lift it. Gamma uses her knife as a lever and gets it into position while Epsilon waits to help with the manhole cover. As soon as the explosion goes off the Twins remove the manhole cover as quietly as they can. Once it is opened they both slip inside.

Slasher wrote:The deer moves with the twins, drawing her own knife and levering it between the manholes gap on the opposite side of gamma. Her ears perk as she listens for the explosion with the awareness of a pray animal.

A distant rumble was felt on the ground, as several breaching charges detonated at once, and you heard the echo of exploding flash-bangs and shouting coming from the bank. Soon, gunfire followed. You didn't wait to see how it ends, your muscles straining, you deftly remove the metal cover and slip into the sewer hatch.

Soon, you just barely notice several other silhouettes following suit.


You climb down what feels like 15 meters or 20, before you reach a rather wide tunneling maze, that snaked in all four directions and had 4 way junctions built every 10 meters or so.

"Everyone here?" Matej called over the earpiece "I can't see anyone... its too dark down here as it is." The batpony said, looking around. The tunnels around you were circular in nature, the walls curved inward in a half circle, creating the illusion that you were inside a concrete tube.

Some sort of murky water ran thinly in the middle of the floor and the walls were filled with drying stains of green and brown. You could smell mold and excrement, not all of it human. The only light source was coming from the manhole uptop, the residual light of the city spilling in and illuminating a small patch of ground under the ladder.


"...Damn..." Matej winced, clicking his earpiece again "We're too deep underground, the reception here is pretty bad. We won't be able to get through to anyone still topside."

"Do we have a direction of where to go?" Barker asked non-nonchalantly.

"...Shi Tong dutifully uploaded the schematics of the sewer system to our Data-pads, before the mission began." Roksana pleasantly answered, consulting her wrist-mounted computer "I believe the direction is this way."

"Is everyone down here?" Matej called again over the earpiece "Roll call, respond if you're down here."

Geoff wrote:With the coast clear, Geoff reaches out with one hand and begins drawing a finger along the seams of the access panel, to judge where best to stick the knife in.

You find a small indentation on the top side of the cover, enough for a fingernail to fit in, or a knives edge. As you work, you began hearing muffled gunshots emanating from the drone's joystick, as the technician operated it, beads of swear appearing on his grim, concentrated face.


You began hearing a transmission in your earpiece but it was really garbled. You thought it might be Matej speaking, but you could barely make out his voice:

"Ev-........re?... I can't... too dark... as it is.... Is ev... n here? ... Roll c... ond if you're..."

Inferno wrote:Inferno was going around on the roofs, making his way over to the main mission, when he noticed something.

There was no one around anymore.

He looked around, making sure his senses weren't deceiving him, before scowling.

"Suits me well enough." He says as he keeps going. "Couldn't stand the sight of them anyway."

Traversing the rooftops, you had to travel for quite a distance, before you reached the point where the police blockade had ended and it was safe to climb down to street level and cross the massive 6 lane venue. You think you've walked for 2 kilometers at least, just using the rooftops and moving alongside the venue, until the flashing police sirens were left behind.

Your earpiece had gone silent a while ago and you stopped hearing the radio chatter of your team. Only the faint staccato of rain and the ambient sounds of the mega-city kept you company. Its orange lights were mesmerizing, almost hypnotically so. Everyone were rushed off somewhere, cars moving lazily in every direction, people coming home and falling asleep in front of their TV's, distant bickering sometimes heard from the windows below you.


The city felt quite lively, considering it was somewhere around 4 in the morning.


"The trap of every day life." A somber voice rang behind you, making you almost jump out of your skin. You couldn't see him, but the monotone voice seemed familiar and after a few seconds, you decided it belonged to the Cultist named Krys, the Unicorn mage who still believed in the cycle of Uroburos and the prophesies of Audrey Swan.

The Cultist noticed he caught your attention and went on, his silhouette faintly turning to face the venue below:

"They wake up, eat breakfast and go to work. Come back, eat dinner, watch a movie and go to sleep. The loop of life, repeated over and over. They think us prisoners, but we are free... they are the ones in a prison."

The mage shifted, his head moving to face you:

"...we really must ask one of the kind cyborgs on our team to write a program for visual IFF tags. Its very easy to lose track of one another, if we are all invisible. I do believe we have separated and strayed quite far from the rest of the team.
No matter."

The hooded unicorn consulted his Data-pad "...we've taken quite a roundabout way, but we've avoided unnecessary attention. It should be safe to cross the venue here and continue to our target objective via rooftops once more. I do wonder if we'll reach it first, despite our scenic route, or if the other team will.

At any rate, I do believe we'll be able to raise them on comms again, once we're all near the target building, we'll be able to coordinate an infiltration then...

Shall we?" the tattooed unicorn tilted his head.

Ignoring the unintelligible radio chatter, and taking quick glances back over to the technician every now and then to make sure he was still distracted, Geoff sticks the tip of his knife into the gap and prises the access panel off, placing his other hand over the panel to catch it so that it does not clatter to the ground.

The access panel came off with some effort and considerable metalic noise. You glance quickly back to the technician, weary of him noticing. The man only frowned into his joysticks display and continued to hammer at it with his fingers. It seems there's enough noise coming from his earpiece, that he didn't hear the panel come off.