⇨ POLARIS 3.0

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 115
Where: Polaris
What: On the morning of day 115, a couple hours before the technicians would come to pick up the test subjects, the escape plan will officially come into effect. If your character has been left out of the loop up till this point, feel free that someone hastily explains the plan during the initial phase! The meat of everything else will be played out via megathreads and any private toplevels people want to make.
Warnings: Probably violence.

PEER REVIEW↴ The plan starts with getting everyone out of their cells. Childermass is going to be using his Gilded Mark to enhance his shadow movement abilities, unabling him to teleport himself and other people out of containment. If your character has other ways of escaping they are free to pursue that, but on a base level, it can be assumed that everyone gets out thanks to Childermass. (Thanks Childermass!) Once everyone has been removed from their cells by some means or another, they will be forced to split into teams as swiftly as possible, as the moment people start breaking out, negative attention from the staff will start building. The area is poorly guarded at first, but as people become aware of the breakout, more will arrive. Gild, speaking on behalf of her inside plant, will say that those that 1) want to get their stuff back, 2) want to find Ignatius, should get the assistance of their allied Deltas to access sector A5. From there, they will have to access Polaris's storage in A3, a neighbouring sector, and find access to C2, the station where Ignatius is being held. They should expect to be met with armed resistance, but with any luck allies will be there to assist them. In general, characters will be most effective if they back one of these major objectives: ► TEAM LOOT: This team is trying to get back the items and pets that were confiscated when the group was brought into Polaris. Their objective, according to their allies on the inside, is to get to A5, and then make their way to A3. The important thing is being able to locate their stuff among a sea of other items, and to make it through security in order to reclaim it. Gild's plant has said that they will assist with this. After getting these items, Team Loot may wish to merge with Team Rescue. ► TEAM RESCUE: This team's primary focus is to get to A5 and then make their way to C2. If desired, they may wait for or join with Team Loot, or they may strike out ahead in order to take advantage of the element of surprise. The key factors are obtaining a way to access C2, as well as being prepared for armed conflict with the technicians guarding it, as well as possibly the Mother of Invention herself. Though, the ideal is that Gild will be distracting here at that time. ► TEAM DISTRACTION: This team can do their thing wherever they please, as their main intent is to sew general discord and distract the staff from the teams doing more important things. They should be prepared for armed resistance, but what tactics they pursue beyond that point are highly variable. ► TEAM FORTRESS: This team is attempting to set up a protective base of operations in the original sector in order to survive the conflict and protect their noncombatant comrades. How they accomplish this is also highly variable. Other objectives may exist, of course, and can be made with their own separate top levels. Chunks of these megathreads will have to be played out in summary form, so when characters are simply trying to get from place to place and specifics aren't necessary, feel free to stick to that format. Assume that everyone is already out of their cells for the purpose of the megathreads. Here is a shitty map of how the sectors connect, from a side view of the central Polaris hub.

Comments

[moonfang]

Welp, that's enough for Zangetsu.

He retreats and helps Syr by taking the visor from the Beta.

[npcarnival]

The Beta is holding back from screaming, mostly because Syrlya has a sword right on them. Their eyes are wide and full of terror, their face exposed without the visor. Shimmer gestures urgently to bring the Beta forward.

"Bring them in here, would you?" Shimmer says. "We need that access chip."

[chronosynthesis]

Sorry for the trauma, Beta. At least he's not too rough as he nudges the Beta towards Shimmer with a nod.

"We'll let you go as soon as we get what we need," he murmurs to the Beta, which he's sure isn't remotely comforting but you know, if it makes them slightly more cooperative so he's not dragging them around.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's eyes widen at the sight of the mark, but there isn't much time to marvel at how two of their allies came to work together like this.

"The chip? You mean... from their head." Yeah, she looks a little uncomfortable with that, even if she understands its importance. She'll go ahead and walk inside, taking a moment to look over the equipment available to them.

[periphrasing]

Peridot follows Rita's lead. If it looks like there's anything useful they can take with them, she'll stash it in the pocket dimension for later.

[npcarnival]

"Yes," Shimmer says, simply, and moves towards the Beta - only to open her palms at the side of their head, releasing another cloud of that cold steam. It swirls into the Beta's nose and mouth, and soon they are falling limp.

"Please remove your sword from the door so that I can close it," she says to Zangetsu, and then gestures for Syrlya to follow her over to the chair. "Set her down, here."

Shimmer looks at Rita, barely breaking a step. She knows what needs to be done.

"I'm going to put this Beta's access chip in your head."

[scientificist]

Herbert's already followed into the room, of course, only half-managing to stay on watch. He's way more interested by how Shimmer's going to remove the chip. He assumes this means actually getting a good angle to watch the surgical processes for once instead of on himself while pinned down.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's face pales slightly, and one can easily imagine the sort of look she must have in her eyes right now. Great. More messing around in her head. She was afraid of this...

But it really does look like it's their best option, and they seem to have the necessary equipment right here, so it's time to make a quick decision.

"Damn it..." she mutters, taking a moment to steel her nerves. At least it probably won't hurt as much the second time around... "Fine. Do what you have to do."

[moonfang]

"Ah, right,"

Zangetsu is standing close enough that he can just open his hand, and the sword flies back to it. He places it again in his sash... though he'd prefer not to watch this, so he moves out into the hallway to stand guard.

[npcarnival]

Shimmer smiles just a little at Rita's agreement, and then will brace in the Beta's head as Syrlya presumably brings them over. Wasting no time, Shimmer will move to the controls, and a set of mechanical arms will unfold behind the back of the chair - swiftly moving towards the exposed implant in the Beta's neck and skull. Patches of hair are burned off, and areas are sterilized with a spray similar to what Shimmer was shooting from her hands.

It takes a couple minutes, but eventually the robot hands will start to dissemble part of the Beta's implant - and once the device is open, Shimmer comes over to use a small pair of tweezers, to manually pull out what looks like a thin computer chip. Dropping it into a petri dish, she moves back to the computer, and sets the device to seal the implant back up without it. Once it's done, Shimmer looks back to Syrlya, giving orders with zero hesitation.

"Set her aside for now. It will be a while before she wake up." Then, she looks to Rita. "Now sit. It's your turn."

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya gives Rita a faintly apologetic look as he moves to gather the Beta and put her back in the office chair. Not like it's his fault, they do what they have to. But still.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita takes a slow, deep breath, shoulders heaving as she does so... then goes ahead and sits in that chair.

"You better know what you're doing," she grumbles, settling into position and holding still, her hands clenched into a death-grip on the chair. She doesn't really doubt Shimmer's ability, though. It's just that this process is so damned freaky to begin with.

[periphrasing]

Peridot paces nearby, only half inspecting the rest of the room. She keeps glancing at their new ally, a slight frown on her face. Eventually, once the chip is extracted from the Gamma, she pads back over to get a closer look at what's happening.

"So you're Shimmer? I heard you escaped from here some time back. How the heck did you get back in without being recognized?" she asks, cocking her head slightly.

[npcarnival]

"It was complicated," Shimmer says, as she puts the braces up against Rita's temple and gets to work starting up the machine. "But, the gist of it was that when the Summer Court blew up A2, I took the place of one of the dead Gammas."

She says it very casually as she works. The mechanical arms start to move and start pulling apart Rita's implant. It feels like pressure, like the beginning of a tension headache that starts in the neck, but it isn't outright pain.

"The hull was breached in a few places, so Gild and I entered the premises, hoping to extricate her brother while we had the chance. Unfortunately, the Mother reacted too quickly. We had to retreat, and instead of going for him, I got Gild to burn my neck and back and pretended that I'd been caught in the blast. They found me and brought me in for repairs. With the onboard memory destroyed, they had to take my word for it. I already looked the part, anyway."

Meanwhile, Rita's implant has been fully opened up. Shimmer reaches in with the tweezers and pulls out the chip, carefully replacing it with the one she took out of the Beta.

"We all look practically the same, you know."

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya stays close to the door as he listens.

"I see... where is Gild now? Who are the others from the Summerlands who are helping?"

He's just had the assumption so far they're fae from the Summerlands anyway, and not direct court far.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita's vision goes dark while the chips are exchanged. Despite the visor obscuring part of her face, it's clear that she's clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut during the procedure. She stays like that for a bit, until something in Shimmer's explanation manages to pull her thoughts away from what's happening to her head.

"Wait... brother? Those two are siblings?"

Rita suspected they were related, but she never knew exactly how.

[npcarnival]

Shimmer looks at Syrlya, tilting her head a little. She seems confused.

"Others from the Summerlands?" she repeats. "No one here is from the Summerlands. Gild is a rogue fae, and I'm from the caravan."

Then she looks back to Rita as she sets the machine to start closing up her implant.

"I'm sure he wouldn't use that word, but I believe 'brother' is the laymen term. They were created during the same ritual, by the same makers. Or so Gild told me. I'm surprised she never told you."

[chronosynthesis]

"So it's just the two of you?" That leads to the question how the caravan got involved, but... that's honestly a story for another time.

He nods to Rita. "How are you feeling? Do you have the access we need?"

[npcarnival]

"No, there are others as well," she says. "You've got quite the fan following, you know. But... the less the Mother knows, the better." She taps her visor and then points at the ceiling.

The machine finished putting together Rita's implant. Inside of her visor, it will display a 'syncing' prompt, followed by the declaration 'SUCCESSFULLY SYNCED: BETA-78'.

"You can sit up now," Shimmer says.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita rises to her feet, seemingly steady for a person who just had someone poking around inside her head.

"I'm fine," she tells Syrlya. "Looks like it synced properly."

She'll take a moment to look through the HUD to see if there's anything new and useful-looking in there now, but as she does, she'll say, "We'd better head back to the transporter. Shimmer, what are you going to do?" She can come with them, of course, but it's possible she's got something else in mind.

[npcarnival]

"I'll stay here," she says, crossing her arms. "I'm going to wait for the group that's going for the confiscated items. They'll need an upgraded access chip, too."

She gestures.

"But you guys go on. We can't have much longer before they figure out what's going on. Once you're in C2, look for a central area. There will be elevators between levels. With any luck, your Summer Court friend will be waiting for you."

There's a teasing edge to her saying that.

"Now shoo."

[moonfang]

"Hopefully they won't try and take you out, too," Zangetsu says from the hallway with a grin. Then, he jerks a thumb toward the transporter. "Now that we have our passport, we should stop flappin' our lips and get a move on. The other group isn't far."

[scientificist]

"Wait," Herbert says quickly, "you've, experienced this, you've escaped--how do we remove the...Mother's control? Her...custody? Is there a plan in place for that?"

[npcarnival]

"What did I just say about shooing?" Shimmer says. "We'll deal with that once we get there. Go."

You can probably put that down as a'it depends on how this shakes out.'

Once they get back to the entrance room, they'll come across Team Loot standing around and trying to summon a Beta. Please handwave this interaction, but know that information can be passed between them as you make it to the teleporter.

Besides that nothing is getting in your way.

[scientificist]

That is Herbert's least favourite answer but fine! He'll get back to get going, he GUESSES.