Futuristic Across Galaxies and Adventures IC

[PixelSymphony]

Val's attention was taken away from the voices in her earpiece as she watched the map download to her commo unit. "Roger, looks like the map transmission was good. All right Ann, we're gonna take a quick scout of the hospital and see if I can plant your little bug before we skedaddle over to where it sounds like Ren's gotten lodging for us. Wish us luck, and hopefully you'll be downloading videos before the day is done." With a flick of her thumb, she brought up the map of the hospital that had been sent over, scanning through the schematic to see just where exactly they were going to have to get to whenever they made their attempt. Hm... well, it's not the worst map I've ever seen, but I sure as hell wouldn't wouldn't have minded a bit more detail. Oh well, improvisation is part of the craft, after all. She waved the map away, the accelerometers on her wrist signalling to her electronics to pare down to standby mode for the moment. With a nod to the stalwart knight, she followed her down the path they'd taken up here, careful not to move too quickly lest they attract a wandering eye.

The hospital's bright lights made it visible from miles away and no shortage of roads ran towards it, and thus the duo soon found themselves standing on the outskirts of the medical facility's campus. Ambulances rushed in, dropping off their precious cargo before racing away, while over at the main entrance, people drifted in and out of the sliding doors into the welcoming lobby just within. Val was eager to begin her reconnaissance as soon as possible, but a glance over at Ganryu's face made her pause. Just what is she staring at? she wondered, following the Lizan's gaze towards the back of the building. Oh... well well, now what do we have here? It didn't take an intelligence officer to realize Ganryu had locked eyes on the large trucks that had just pulled in; that said, their sleek, futuristic forms seemed out of place in a city that mostly stuck to the rock-hewn history it possessed. Interesting. Pictures of the trucks were rapidly and clandestinely taken before Val quickly moved away from their position to a more secluded one, gesturing the reptilian guardian to follow.

"Security station camera," Val quickly called out in response, before continuing. "Hey, Ganryu, come over here, I think I've got an idea of how to do this." The demoness angled the projected map out towards her companion, before beginning to gesture towards portions of it with her other hand. "So, good news is, since we're doing a job on a hospital and not a military base, a lot of these doors are going to be unlocked by default. Bad news is, I'm willing to bet cartridges to cookies they're still keeping the security station under cardkey access; I should be able to get through those without too much issue but we're gonna have to distract the guards inside for a moment or two while I do so and then plant the bug. So... yeah, if you've got any ideas, I'm all ears."

 

[Nellancholy]

"All ears." Ganryu gave a small smile at the amusing turn of phrase. "Well..." She flattened herself against a wall. It was at least fortunate that they were able to slip in earlier without having to go through the usual rigmarole that patients or visitors would be subjected to. The section of the building where the security station was located happened to be less surveilled than the rest of the building. Well, it made sense. That's where the mutated, irradiated, plagued, and other potentially dangerous medical emergencies were less likely to be. That or just disgruntled families of patients.

"I think the usual act is out of the question..." Feigning some kind of medical emergency with Val wasn't going to work, considering how Val needed to actually be there at the security station to retrieve the surveillance footage. And well, Ganryu herself wasn't necessarily the best actor. She'd never been one to malinger, and she wasn't unused to doctors who specialised in either mammalian or reptilian patients having trouble with Lizans. So...convincingly playing symptoms of something that was bad but wouldn't get her locked up in quarantine was unlikely to succeed.

"But! This on the other hand is just my line of expertise." Ganryu beckoned Val to follow as she set down the case on her back, picking up the hefty mace within before pulling the case onto her shoulder again. She tapped the handle against her palm a few times. "Now look." She pointed up at one of the few surveillance cameras and fluorescent lights lining the ceiling, as well as the shielding that ran between them. "They've got their own power junction. Follow me." It didn't take more than a few minutes for Ganryu to track down the circuit panel that controlled power to the security office. Of course, it happened to be protected by a sturdy steel cabinet that would usually take a physical key or a code to open. More obstacles for a typical infiltrator. But at least in this moment, Ganryu's expertise was anything but typical. "You might want to stand back a little, Miss Val. Hup!"

Ganryu lined up the mace with the corner of the durable door, gently drawing the weapon back as she made sure her aim was true. And then...

CLANG

She made contact with what registered as a firm tap to her, but would clearly be a solid blow to whatever was on the receiving end. The cabinet door buckled and warped at the corner, giving Ganryu an opening to pry it open a bit further with her claw to create just enough room to work. Immediately she got to flipping some switches and pulling out some wires, nothing that would cause too much damage. Nor would any patients be endangered, considering how this area's circuits were partitioned from the rest of the hospital.

And just like that, the lights went out. "Miss Val, we have less than a minute before the backup power comes on. Do be ready."

As per emergency protocol, the door to the security station slid open, preventing whoever was within from being trapped inside. A froggy-looking fellow in a security uniform stepped out, peering around. "'Ello 'ello, well wot's all this then?"

Ganryu stepped forward to take up his view with her stature and give Val an opportunity to slip in. In the darkness, hopefully the guard wouldn't notice that she wasn't a person who was supposed to be here. "M-my apologies, sir. I didn't notice anyone nearby, but I heard the strangest sounds coming from the circuit board in this wing! Must be a hacker remotely accessing the system after something else from this hospital!"

"Oh my stars and garters!" The guard croaked, giving a little hop of shock. "Bloody 'ell, they'll 'ave my head for this, they will. Just when I came back from 'oliday, too..."

 

[PixelSymphony]

Val's crimson eyes carefully tracked the electrical lines that Ganryu traced out in the air, nodding as her counterpart locked onto the box they were going to need to monkey with. She was already beginning to withdraw her intrusion kit when the Lizan knight told her to stand back. "Eh?" Confusion marked her face as she stood dumbfounded watching as her counterpart lined up a shot. "Wait are you-" was all she had time to get out before the door to the control system was no more. Abashed, she secreted away her lockpicks and shook her head; there was no denying the effectiveness of Ganryu's approach, but subtle, it was not. "Anyway, a minute will be more than enough." And with that, she seemed to fade into the shadows as the scene before her turned into improv night at the theatre. Sure enough, the lizan's imposing figure was sufficient to conceal Val's entry into the security room, and quickly, she went to work, giving a silent chuckle at her partner's ad hoc remark of a hacker. Who knew you could lie by telling the truth...

The security room was standard commercial-grade, with various desktop computers and monitors sitting about, their cables and keyboards strewn wherever there was space. The hospital didn't expect to be invaded so their security was mostly technological more than physical, a trait that in this case would play right into the hands of the crew of the Imperious. Val carefully took the small robotic spider out of a pouch she'd been safekeeping it in and plucked the data cable from its rear end, plugging it into an open spot on a nearby router before carefully concealing the body within the mess of cables in the cabinet. There was a moment of personal amusement at her realization she'd literally put a cyberspider on a company's internal web, but sadly she had no time to waste in mirth as she could hear the conversation by the doorway coming to a close. Quickly, she unhinged a ventilation grate nearby the floor before crawling in and replacing it, leaving a crack just large enough for Julie to escape through when the deed was done. "Okay, I'm clear," she whispered into her earpiece, "let's split off for now, in case we're followed. I'll meet you back at the rendezvous point." And with that, she was gone.

 

[Nellancholy]

Perfect. Val did her side of the work flawlessly. The way they got in wasn't quite the smoothest, but Val was able to get out no problem. A distinct thonk and a whirring filled the air as the backup generators turned on, and the lights in the office wing winked back on one by one. Just as well, it was time to extricate herself from the awkward improvisational theater she had found herself embroiled in.

"Oh, heavens! Thank the Maker the backup generators are on!" The security guard's panicked hopping seemed to abate as he calmed down...somewhat. "Why, now I've got to do a quick sweep of the wing, make sure they haven't taken anything...hold on." His big, beady eyes glanced at the broad, scaly Lizan who had distracted him. "Bloody 'ell, you're not staff!"

And here the other shoe dropped. Sure, a good swing to his jaw would probably put him out of commission for a bit, and she could leave him to the consequences of the security breach. But that would simply not do. "No, sir. I am not." Ganryu sighed. "I represent a...private contractor hired by the entity that manages the hospitals on this planet, and I was just leaving when I noticed the damage done to the circuit board here. Listen...I think another breach of security so soon after the last would reflect very poorly on the staff onsite, don't you think?" Which mostly just meant the froggy fellow himself. She clasped her claws together in a reconciliatory gesture. "But you do have surveillance clearance! Perchance you could simply...wipe the last 5 minutes or so, and the minor damage to the circuits you could write off as a blown fuse." And she hoped against hope that he would care more about covering his cloaca than question how she knew the scale of damage to the circuits or how she got in. "You have my word, I will leave at once and I have harmed no one and taken nothing during my visit."

"Ah, yes yes, of course..." He clasped his webbed hands back, mirroring her gesture before taking out his keycard, swiping it in the security terminal, and inputting the commands to reboot the cameras. "B-but as for you, how in the world do you know-"

But by the time he turned around, Ganryu had made an exit as fast as her scaly legs could carry her.

---

Ganryu walked down the sidewalk by one of the main streets of the city, stretching her arms. It did her no good to have lied to that poor fellow. And made him lie as well to cover both of them. Frankly, little was likely to befall him. But she couldn't help but feel like she had to atone somehow. And there was still a couple of hours to spare before the crew regrouped at that strangely convenient inn...

Her gaze fell on a truck apparently stranded by the road, faint wisps of steam issuing from beneath its open hood.

Astra Heavy Industries.

Must have been one of those dropping off supplies earlier at the hospital.

Ganryu almost wanted to walk on by...but her oath called to her.

"Something I can help you with?" She joined the clearly anxious driver by the front of the truck.

"Damn it, another nosy local..." The driver muttered under her breath. "Not unless you can haul a new radiator up here before Dispatch calls me back and sends one over. They're going to dock my pay for this..."

A quick look revealed that most of the truck's important systems were intact, but the radiator had ruptured, leaking water all over the road. Poor truck probably hadn't been prepared adequately when it got shipped in from offworld, and there was no way it was making it back to wherever it came from without overheating dangerously. "Young lady, you've already offloaded all your stock, yes? Do check in the back and see if you have any leftover coolant."

"Coolant? Look, there's no way you can just pour that in-"

Ganryu's jaw set as she tried to maintain her calm. "I know where you came from, and I know what you were carrying. What you have will work." Medical supplies always came shipped in a temperature-regulated container by corps like Astra. "Please, just bring me the coolant and your toolbox."

"Fine." The smaller woman shrugged. "But you're staying right here. If you make anything worse, I'll make sure Astra sues your ass for it."

And it was, in fact...fine. It didn't take long for Ganryu to bolt the little coolant tank (well, if a tank the length of the driver's forearm was little) to the underside of the hood and used some hosing to circulate it through the radiator in a way that would bypass the ruptured parts of it. She took a deep sigh. How much heat was coming from the planet's atmosphere and how much of it was from her head. Her frill had opened without her noticing. "Go ahead. Start the engine."

The driver got into the truck's cabin and closed the door. Shrinking as far back in her seat as she could, as if expecting the front to explode, she turned the key. "Huh. Engine's running, temperature gauge is normal..."

"My efforts..." Ganryu made sure not to self-deprecate, least of all in front of someone so...volatile. "They will hold." Not "should hold". "Until you make it back to Dispatch."

"...Right." Without so much as a thank you, the driver peeled away, leaving Ganryu on the sidewalk in her wake.