(CLOSED) My hands are tied, for all I've seen has changed my mind

[alittlesweptup]

Date & Time: Forward-dated to Nov. 16 0300hrs through Nov.19th ~0230hrs
Location: Observatory, East Loading Bay, Transporter Room, Various (read: everywhere)
Characters: Pro-Initiative and Mutineer action teams
Summary: With mutineers occupying the transporter room and vital base systems hamstrung, Pro-Initiative forces work against mutineer teams to bring those systems back online and reach the transporter room.
Warnings: None yet (will update as necessary...because lbr ‘none yet’ isn’t going to last long)
Notes: All threads, with the exception of the Transporter Room B, are open for posting beginning now. Transporter Room B will kick off on Nov.16th proper in order to incorporate decision making from earlier action team’s choices and to maintain tonal cohesion. Community wide mingle log for the mutiny will go up on Nov. 16th.

[At 0300hrs on November 16th, things suddenly go wrong. The network cuts out, lighting abruptly goes from artificially sterile to the unsettling flickering of red emergency lighting. Furniture, supplies and even Transports suddenly find themselves untethered from the ground as the base’s gravity regulation abruptly shuts down; moreover, it isn’t long before Transports begin to realize they’ve been locked off from anything but the housing(/restrooms), vr and cafeteria sections of the base. Not long after:

Click-HHHSSSHK-click!

A woman’s voice speaks over the moon base’s PA system, echoing through the dark corridors and off the odds and ends gently floating through them thanks to the lack of gravity regulation. The voice is rich and accented, with a certain practiced ease to it - one that sharpens to a point the longer she talks:]

Testing. Testing-- are we good? Christ, I'm not echoing, am I? No?

All right good. Listen up, fellow transports. As you might have noticed, some of the base's general systems have gone offline: this, I assure you, is absolutely intentional. There's no need to panic.

So moving on from the understandably frustrating to the even more frustrating, I'm sure you all have also noticed the fact that we're currently all stuck-- starving and defenseless-- on the bloody moon. In a base that was, up until a few days ago, overrun with zombies. And before that, thousands of lives were bombed right out of existence, and before that, an entire world-- and before that we were all still being thrown at the United Earth for the sake of dying off repeatedly in a war we never stood a chance or had a say in. Transports have been treated like pawns since day one, and I'm sorry, but we don't deserve it.

If we're giving up our lives and our freedom, I'd say it's about time we earned ourselves a little equality.

We deserve a say in what goes on in this fight, and with that in mind, a few of us have decided to hold onto the transporter for a while. Just until the Initiative agrees to treat us like people instead of ammunition. Trust me, we’re not here to hurt anyone; none of this has to end badly. But it does need to end. Things have got to change. And if this is what it takes? This is what it’s going to be.

We need your help; please don’t make it any harder for us.

[The PA clicks off, pitching the base once more into complete radio silence.

Over the course of the next four days, pro-Initiative transports gather their resources and individuals form impromptu (or well planned) teams to bring these systems back online and out of the hands of mutineers so they can ultimately reach the transporter room and set things to right -- whatever that “right” may be.]

Comments

[khajidont]

[Jaime's still wrist deep in the wires when he whips his head around at the unexpected voice - though he almost immediately relaxes when he sees who it is. He may not know Batwoman well, but she has always undeniably spelled ally whenever he's seen her.]

Oh, hey Batwoman.

[He looks as if he would be liable to wave at her if his hands weren't occupied, but then it occurs to him that not everyone is on the side he had initially thought they were. A frown tugs at one side of his mouth as he considers the possibility.]

Please tell me you don't wanna stop me from fixing the doors.

[gevurah]

[ The tension in her shoulders dissipate marginally.

Thank god for someone remaining sane on board. ]

On the contrary; how long will it take you to get these doors open?

[ She focuses the light toward the control panel, frowning at it. ]

[khajidont]

[He exhales loudly.] Thank god.

[He's really not spoiling for a fight right now, particularly not this late into this whole ordeal. He returns his attention back to the panel, using the hand that's still functioning as a hand to tease out a bundle of torn wires.]

If they'd just messed around with the programming, I'd be able to do it pretty quick once I get to the main panel. But they decided to cut a bunch of the wires and jam up the gears too, 'cause that's just a brilliant--

[He cuts himself off. Batwoman's not the one he should be complaining to right now.]

Sorry. Not the point. [He begins twisting the frayed wires together, one after the other.] Point is, it depends on how many of the doors they did this to.

[gevurah]

[ She crouches low now, keeping the light pointed on the panel for Blue Beetle. She takes a closer look at them, pursing her lips as she assesses the damage done to the wires. ]

Let's hope they knew which wires to cut.

[ She's not a technician by any means aboard the base, but anyone with a lick of common sense knows cutting wires at random can spell trouble. ]

What do you need?

[khajidont]

It looks like they did. [He finishes twisting one pair of wires together, and moves onto the next one.] If you know where to get your hands on electrical tape, that'd be useful.

[After a thoughtful pause, he asks:] Do you even know where the main control panel stuff for this is? 'Cause I never bothered checking that out.

[gevurah]

[ She shakes her head, tilting her head toward the sealed off doors. ]

Might be closer to the Transport Pad, which is cordoned off.

But I can look.

[ They can't be the only ones out here trying to resolve the situation. ]

[khajidont]

Thanks. [He finishes twisting the wires together and picks up the lid of the panel, screwing it back into place with one finger.

He stretches his arms above his head once he's finished, already thoroughly tired of hunching over what he can only qualify as fiddly tech work. He'd make a joke about having a nice, simple giant robot to punch instead, but he'd rather not jinx them.]

I can keep on checking out the doors one at a time until we can find it, but I'd really like to get in there as soon as I can. If this goes on for much longer, we're just gonna get people punching through the doors.

[And with his patience running at an all-time low, it may very well be him.]

[gevurah]

[ She doesn't want to damage the base even more as they're still recovering from the necromorph outbreak. She rises, scoping out the way she came with her flashlight to check for any movement. ]

I don't know what these people are expecting to accomplish.

[ And she doesn't know if she'll be able to find anything that'll be handy with various rooms sealed off. ]

I'll be back.

[khajidont]

[Jaime nods, though he remembers the last time Batwoman was supposed to return. This is no war, granted, but he's beginning to learn that even the simplest of things tend to go awry in this world.]

Yeah, sure. See you.

[controlledvariable]

[Steph's been working on the doors on and off for the past couple of days, when she wasn't fussing with other malfunctions. The problem with being on edge and frustrated is that she doesn't have the patience to sit down and mess around with broken wiring when she can just easily teleport around the doors.

But she can't teleport into the transporter room, and that's where they really need to be, so she's finally forcing herself to have a little goddamn patience.

Which is easier said than done, but still.

Babs has given her a rudimentary list of doors that are definitely offline, and she pops over to one now, appearing a few feet behind where Jaime is working.]

Having any luck?

[STEPH DON'T SNEAK UP ON PEOPLE.]

[khajidont]

Holy--! [Even if Jaime doesn't literally jump into the air, it's a close thing. He does eventually wheel around, one hand and one wrench-hand held in the air in mock-surrender.]

Okay, I know you guys are all about the whole stealth thing, but you're taking ninja-ing to the next level here. [He doesn't even bother pretending that Steph didn't just scare a year off his life there.

Of course, she actually has a question he's got to answer instead of rambling on about her more ninja-like qualities.] It's going. It's going slowly, but it's going.

[controlledvariable]

[She winces, the expression a little apologetic. Usually she's a bit better about the whole sneaking and appearing-behind-people thing, but her thoughts are a little distracted.]

Sorry.

[That's all she say on it, moving to kneel down beside him.]

Slow is better than nothing. What can I do to help?

[khajidont]

If you're good with wiring, it looks like the most they've done is cut the wires and stuff some crap in the gears for a few of the doors. You just gotta twist together the right ones, and you're good.

[He moves over to a second panel and begins unscrewing it to check on the state of the gears.] You just missed Batwoman. She's looking to see if she can figure out where the main control panel is.

[controlledvariable]

Jesus christ.

[That's all she has to say for a long moment, because how fucking stupid are these people?

Hacking into the door systems and taking control would be one thing, but damaging the doors is just a bad idea she doesn't even know where to start. It takes her a second to get past her annoyance and move to another panel, pulling out a screwdriver and pair of wirestrippers from her belt.

So apparently she can handle the technical part.]

You sure she's on our side?

[just... checking]

[gevurah]

[ She can hear two voices from down the corridor as she makes her way back to Beetle, now spotting the familiar streaks of purple and the blond hair on the figure ahead. ]

You could always ask me.

[ Which is her way of saying, "Yes." She turns the flashlight from Batgirl to Beetle, shaking her head. ]

No go. They's managed to lock enough doors.

[khajidont]

[Jaime just shrugs in Batwoman's direction, as if to say there you go to Steph. The question of her trustworthiness hadn't especially occurred to him after his initial question, truth be told, and he is vaguely aware that he's really not suited to in-fighting on the sly. If you can't trust anyone, then how are you supposed to get anything done?]

Yeah... that's what I figured, but it was worth a shot. [He opens one panel, and begins to tease a rag from out of the gears. He's glad to see that they didn't stuff anything in there that will truly harm the system, that it will just make sure that it's out of commission for a while.] Maybe we can get in touch with the AI. It'll know for sure.

[controlledvariable]

[Steph looks at Batwoman for a long moment, not hiding the assessment in her gaze.]

And you could always lie.

[It's just a statement of fact, maybe a little cold, but there's no anger. Not that Batwoman couldn't lie to Jaime, either, but he might've seen more of her in the past few days than Steph has.

Still, she listens to the exchange, not exactly surprised by the fact they can't find the main controls.]

We could try contacting it over the network.

they's... what the hell was i writing

[gevurah]

I'm hurt.

[ She brushes past the mistrust she doesn't bother to get to the bottom to. While trust is important in these situations, time is also of the essence. She's not wasting her breath squabbling over loyalties when they both wear the same insignia. ]

Even if they've seized control of the main power, the AI's necessary systems are supposed to remain operative.

[ In the light cat's own words. She hopes it's true. ]

...I did not even notice! we all have those slip-ups

[khajidont]

[The distrust Steph has for Batwoman is downright odd, considering they both wear the Bat on their chest. If nothing else, Jaime would consider that grounds for trust, but he's not about to get into the middle of it when Batwoman seems perfectly content to let it simply roll off her shoulders. Instead, he straightens from his work and hits his forehead lightly with the heel of one hand, muttering,] I should've thought of that a while ago.

[A long while ago, considering he'd been working on the doors before either of the Bats came along.]

Scarab, you heard them. Do your thing.

[He closes his eyes, nodding as the Scarab feeds him the configuration of the moonbase.] Looks like we're in luck.

~it is a mystery~

[controlledvariable]

[Steph does want to actually ask, but she can understand the way Batwoman shrugs the whole thing off, so she keeps her mouth shut about it. That doesn't mean she won't keep being wary, but there's no point poking at Batwoman about it; Steph doesn't know her well enough to tell if she's lying, anyway.

Instead, she gets to work on the panel she's set herself in front of, stripping wires and reconnecting them.]

It's been a long few days.

[It's meant to reassure Jaime for not having thought of it yet; she might beat herself up over slip ups like that, but she doesn't want anyone else doing it.]

[gevurah]

[ Too many unknown variables. She loathes it. What are they hoping to accomplish with this mutiny? Unless they hope to create a proper chain of command and lead a poorly constructed army to victory, she doubts the mutineers have a solid idea what they really need to do.

She keeps the lights pointed for the two as they work, keeping an eye out for unusual movement in the shadows. ]

What did you find, Beetle?

[khajidont]

[He shakes his head minutely at Steph's reassurance - should've thought of it earlier, having a long day doesn't have to make him slow - but there are more important things to deal with.

His voice is more focused when he speaks next, fingertips glowing and a holographic map in blue appearing just above them.]

A map. That square right now, those are the controls we need to get to. Maybe the direct pathway is blocked off, but all we have to do is - [what is it that Ted is always saying in his notes, again?] - think sideways.

[controlledvariable]

[She looks at the map, then at Jaime, not quite grinning, but there's something pleased in her expression.]

You mean this kinda sideways?

[And she disappears, popping back into sight barely a second later, just six feet to her right.]

[gevurah]

[ She blinks behind her mask, surprised at what just happened before her eyes.

Really, lots of unknown variables. ]

Chances are they're monitoring the doors. [ If they're smart enough. ] How much time do we have before they pick up on the doors unlocking?

[khajidont]

[As Batwoman merely blinks her surprise, Jaime is a little more vocal with an amazed:] Whoa, no way. You got powers? That is so cool.

[What he really wants to do is ask her to do it again (and then maybe a few more times) just so he can see it, but Batwoman's question makes him tamp down on that impulse. He shuts his mouth.]

Probably not much time, but once we're in, we're in. Unless they've got an AI too, they won't have anyone better than me working their controls.