⇨ 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

[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.

[chronosynthesis]

"Thank you, Shimmer." Syrlya nods and moves to open the door, gesturing everyone out. "If Lambert and the others are here, then we need to move now before they begin to check on this place."

So he agrees with 'shoo'. He watches Rita in particular to make sure she's steady.

[periphrasing]

Peridot throws one last glance over her shoulder at Shimmer before following everyone else out the door towards the teleporter, Vorpal Sword in hand.

Looks like they're really doing this.

[moonfang]

Zangetsu leans in and whispers in Herbert's ear.

They're going to kill the Mother of Invention, obviously -- she can't own anything or anyone if she's an ex-fae.

Now, it's time to get going.

[scientificist]

Herbert finds this unlikely to happen when they are all currently PERSONALLY OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY HER MAGICALLY and have their powers suppressed...but he doesn't even say this he just rolls his eyes at Zan and keeps going.

[anti_nonsense]

Before parting ways with Shimmer, Rita will pause for a moment and say, "...Thanks. It couldn't have been easy to come back here."

As they meet up with the rest of the group, she'll briefly fill them in on what just happened. By the end of the interaction, though, Yuya's encouragement has her face getting red and she hurries along to the transporter, where she uses her visor to interact with the controls.

Once everyone's ready, she'll set a course for sector C2.

[npcarnival]

With nothing getting in their way, Rita will successfully access the teleporter and they'll all be transported to C2. When they step out of the airlock, everything is quiet, and looks similar to the place they just left. There is a desk ahead, similar to before, but there is no one seated at it.

It's a time to consider whether certain advantages should be used for the sake of expediency, or saved for later. There are a few floors to search, and a number of technicians to run into

[anti_nonsense]

Rita starts by checking the layout in her visor. Nothing seems to immediately stand out as a place Ignatius might be...

"I don't know where to go from here," she admits to the others. "But I have a boon from the Gilded Mark. There are a number of ways it can be used, but it's a one time deal. I could try using it to find the way to Ignatius."

Whether she does or not, she'll at least let the others know it's an option.

[moonfang]

"Before you burn that, let me check..."

His senses aren't as strong, but-- he has become intimately familiar with Ignatius' spiritual pressure, the scent of his soul.

He casts his senses out to see if he can locate him.

[chronosynthesis]

That's something that's been on Syrlya's mind, but...

"Not yet," he says in a lower tone as he turns to her. "As you said, we can only use it once. It may be that finding him is the easy part--and finding the way out is not."

Because they may not be able to just take the teleporter back, and they don't know what Gild will really be doing in all of this. "If it proves to be too difficult, we can use it. But we have two other ways of tracking him down."

He nods to Zangetsu and Herbert, one of which is already working on it. "Let's move forward and look through the walls and try to pick up any sense of his soul. Shimmer advised looking for ways down, no doubt to a more secure level."

[npcarnival]

Zangetsu will feel the faintest buzz of Ignatius's presence nearby. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell what direction it's coming from, only that it's close. It's possible that he's too weak to give off as recognizable of a signal.

Rita will feel something similar, but more abstract. It's almost like when they were communicating by emotions, but there's nothing but impossible to discern emotional static.

[moonfang]

Well, that's not good.

"He's nearby. I can't.. get a good bead on him, though. Damn..."

[periphrasing]

"Well we know he's not dead at least," Peridot says unhelpfully. "As long as we're still able to use our powers, we know that much."