⇨ 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

[atouts]

"I think I'll take my chances with the suit," Childermass speaks up after... awhile. He's not exactly a chatty man to begin with, so whatever, although Lambert's question earns the witcher a vaguely annoyed look.

It makes sense to want to ditch them but, also, he doesn't want to be running around with a pack of naked people. Really. That said, he'll spare a glance towards their familiar new arrival.

"And unless you have an Alpha in mind, Ms. Shimmer, it may be just as well to carry on without. Time won't be on our side here."

[npcarnival]

"All of the machinery for applying and removing suits is in the B-Ring," she explains. "Test subjects are never meant to be in this part of the station, unless they are particularly tantalizing and require private examination."

"And I don't have any in mind, Mr Childermass," she says, looking at him. "Beta may have to do for now, for lack of better options. An Alpha wouldn't be in a sector like this very often."

"But that doesn't mean we can't strive for better later. The Mother has a secret stash,and I'd like to get into it."

[bananaspeedrider]

"A secret stash?" Yugo can't help but pipe up at that tidbit of information. "What's in it?"

Something extremely important is his best guess.

[alphudo]

Yuusei, having remained otherwise quiet and out of the way for the others to do their thing until this point, raises an eyebrow as he scouts for an appropriate place to hide his large body. "I've heard that the Mother experiments with iron; is that what's in this stash you're looking for, or is there more of hers that you're interested in?"

Glancing briefly to Lambert, he adds, "If iron ends up being our earliest convenience of getting these things off, I'd be willing to take the first blow." If they're all weak to iron here, then trying to remove the suits with it is undoubtedly risky, and he doesn't have any particular abilities that would be interfered with if they tested effectiveness on himself.

[prazerbutterfly]

The thought of anyone getting into his head again makes him uneasy, but now the thought of two attempts make him a little more compliant just because there was a matter of trust that needed to be extended before he was outright forced into it. He's also going to resist making any comments on 'private examinations' given he's flirted with a couple of techs here and there.

"If it'll help," he complies, knowing the first necessary but not quite sure about the second with the Alpha. A higher access would cause them to have less barriers down the road in case whatever plan Gild and Shimmer had hitches.

[npcarnival]

"She does have iron somewhere," Shimmer says. "Most of her experimentation with it is done on Winter colonies, where it isn't illegal to have. However, when I was here, she still kept a bit around to work with privately. She's obsessed with nullifying it as a threat."

"If we want to destroy her, that'd be a good place to start. Right now, though, we need to catch a higher level technician."

[whattaprick]

“Obsessed, but how successful? She’s used it in at least one experiment, so she has it around,” Lambert confirms, though he doesn’t shed any light on how he knows that. Instead, he’ll move on.

“We were about to use that desk to call a Beta and force them to get us through the teleporter. I’m guessing we can skip the ‘keeping them conscious’ part.” He waves at the unconscious Beta.

“We can decide about getting to that stash later. Do you know where it is, or do you have one of those marks too?”

[prazerbutterfly]

He lifts a finger lightly to signal he's ready to call that Beta should he get the go ahead. It seems like Lambert is implying him to do so.

After he's prompted to call them he'll rub at the side of his head, scratching it lightly, "Some of you are a bit large to hide so I'll head out to meet them. I suggest the rest stay here." He waves over his shoulder, heading back out into the hallway to wait for the Beta. He's not sure how long it'll take for them to arrive but he's patient enough. He's putting on a straight face, a relaxed composure, and someone checking over the time like he's in a half hurry to get started on his daily schedule.

[npcarnival]

"I suspect she's managed to mitigate the damage, but not erase it entirely. Some things aren't meant to disappear," Shimmer says. "I do have a Mark, and I'll likely use it on finding what we need, whatever that may be."

"I was thinking about putting in call for assistance myself," she says. "You know, ask for some help with this poor unconscious Beta." She shrugs her shoulder, seemingly as relaxed as Tyki. "We'll see what we can draw in."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya looks a little uncertainly at the Beta, but he stays back at Tyki's advisement as he goes and calls someone over.

"What we need...?" She doesn't sound totally clear what that's going to be, either, though. Yuya's mind isn't really on trying to loot this place for anything more than their own objects.

"Where's Gild? Is she going after Ignatius herself?"

[whattaprick]

"I've got one myself," Lambert confirms, not that Shimmer can see that given the bodysuit. "But good to know."

At least with two marks between them, that's ... more options, or something like it. Like Yuya, his priority is own their own inventory, not the least because it might give the rest a better chance at defending themselves. He's interested in Shimmer's answer, so he won't interrupt or chime in after Yuya, though his ears are pricked, and his attention on the door, like he's waiting on something...

"Send some shadows out there after him, and in the corridors around," he tells Childermass. "Let us know if anything happens."

[npcarnival]

"Hey plan is to attack the Mother directly, up in A1," Shimmer says. "She..."

Suddenly, the entirety of the station shakes, like it's being struck from the outside.

"...She is intending on distracting her while the rest of us work. It would be hard to ignore the direct attack of another Fae."

[hippocarnival]

That makes sense, but Yuya looks nervous at the resulting rumbling.

"Can you reach her? When they bring Igantius back, or..." When they need to escape. She seems like the only one with the power to move them out of the realm. "So she knows what's happening."

[atouts]

Childermass looks up and around them at the shake the station gives, but there's not much he can do about that. If Gild wants to attach the station, so be it. He'll focus instead on creating another mouse out of shadows and sending it tagging along after Tyki. It'll hide in the other man's shadow for now and, back in the room with the rest, Childermass will close his eyes and focus his senses through that.

Spying through the construct means ignoring everyone else around him so try not to ditch him, guys.

[whattaprick]

Obviously, it’s time to sneak off while Childermass is doing his shadow sensing thing.

“If they’re not too distracted by that hitting the station, hopefully a beta shows up sooner rather than later.” Lambert doesn’t like waiting around, that much is obvious. Having a pounding headache doesn’t help with thinking clearly, and he mentally wishes he’d pried the damn sword off Syrlya. Getting Ignatius had seemed the task that needed more of their firepower, but now...

“Will distracting the Mother enough make her forget about keeping us from using our magic?” He sincerely doubts that’s the case, but he can hope, but he has to ask. Since he doesn’t expect an affirmative answer, he’ll go on to add— “What can you tell us about A3? What should we be ready for?”

[prazerbutterfly]

Alone in the hallway, he can focus on himself, his ears perked to listen to any sounds while scanning the walls for anyone else approaching, standing almost at attention with his hands folded behind his back, his tail tip flicking side to side in a calm manner.

His plan is to wait until his supervisor or anyone they send arrives, calm with mild irritation at his visor not working correctly as an excuse. He's not complaining as much as he shows he wants to get back to work. He'll even stand aside to let them lead the way, giving him ample room to strike. The knockout will be quick, a swift roundhouse to the side of their head near their neck to not only take them down but knock that visor loose. Less noise, the better.

Of course, that changes a little if they arrive in pairs given he'll knock out one in the same manner then rush the other to drop them to the floor, removing the visor before locking his arms around their throat with his other hand over their mouth until they pass out.

If there is any more than two well... that'll just increase the challenge.

[npcarnival]

"Possibly," she says. "Part of Polaris block easy communications, but Gild is able to be much... louder, now, without fearing our plans being revealed. We'll have to see. If we do this successfully, our plans should go without saying."

She waves a hand.

"A3 is simply an inventory of the many things the Mother of Invention has stolen. Above it are her most private test chambers, for highly dangerous or rare test subjects. Above that is the core... the power source of Polaris, and the thing keeping it aloft."

"At the very least we need to get to A3 and collect supplies, and rescue some of your animal companions. Beyond that... the Mother is likely in A1, dealing with Gild. We could take the chance to make it into A2 and see what we can find, but at a much higher risk."

[whattaprick]

"But potentially a much higher reward," Lambert finishes, crossing his arms. That's a compelling enough reason to go after it, but no sense in counting griffins before they've hatched and all that.

"I say we see if we can catch ourselves a Beta first and figure out the rest after," is what he settles on, finally. Any hopes of getting to higher levels ride on actually getting the first part of the plan done, after all. He looks around for somewhere to stand where he'll be in the blind spot of whoever enters the doors, available to assist in restraining or knocking out if necessary, having not much else to say for now.

[atouts]

On that note, Childermass breaks away from spying on the hallway long enough to usher everyone else into finding a spot to hide as well, be in behind the desk, in this room, or whatever other room (and not that same hallway) is attached. Once he's found a place himself, he'll resume watching through the shadow construct with Tyki.

[npcarnival]

It's a few minutes before anyone turns up - it's the time of the day where everyone is still waking up or distracted, and the major thing of concern is a wandering Delta, with far worse things happening in other sectors. Still, the general alarms being raised bring the attention of Beta-34, Gamma-378, and Gamma-90, who march down the hallway with an obvious sense of purpose. Both Gammas look like they are armed fur security, with something resembling laser pistols and stun wands.

They approach Tyki as the others huddle back into the repairs room and Shimmer shuts the doors. They'll ask him what the problem is, as there is trouble happening in other sectors, and if it is nothing urgent they are advised to wait in A5, as it seems that something is going on in their sector of residence, B7. As a trainee, Tyki is not considered equipped to deal with it.

[atouts]

Back in the repairs room, Childermass will quietly inform the others that three people showed up for Tyki's request, not just one. He can't really tell one technician apart from another so he can't confirm if there's a Beta or not.

[prazerbutterfly]

With his hands folded against the small of his back in attention like a soldier waiting for instructions, he'll scan the incoming technicians and identify their status. His fingers flash 2-7-7, trying to convey letters of the alphabet, three times but no more than that, trying to pass on what/who he received.

He looks away from the technicians with mild concern on his face, stating he got here earlier, as he was seeking repairs with his visor, and when he noticed the reception desk was quiet he looked behind it and found two passed out technicians tied up. He went a little further to try to find someone else around but when he found no one else he called for his supervisor.

[whattaprick]

Hey, the more, the merrier Lambert will ask Childermass if it's possible for him to pull some people through the shadows to grab the two armed technicians and slam them unconscious. He's reasonably confident in Tyki's combat ability to handle himself in combat as long as he's given a window of opportunity, so if that's not possible, he'll ask Childermass to get ready to provide some sort of shadow distraction to split their attention if they're starting to look suspicious.

[atouts]

Childermass balks a little at the numbers Tyki tries to get across to him, not sure what that's meant to mean. He'll relay them anyhow, mentioning he's trying to tell them something with 2-7-7. He'll also mention two look more like security, so maybe an escort for the supervisor.

He can confirm he could take someone over there to help but he would have to go with them, which means the rest back here won't know what's happening until it happens, whatever it might end up being.

[npcarnival]

The Beta will look at Tyki silently, and in the next moment, he will feel a sharp blast of pain as electricity jolts through his implant and down his spine. It will paralyze him for the moment, causing him to drop down onto his knees.

The Gamma will approach with their support, and command:

"Tell us what you know of the rioting in B7. I would advise against lying, if you plan on maintaining your position within Delta."