Post by Bharune on Apr 11, 2011 20:40:15 GMT -5
{*Suoh*}
Dammit all to hell. A facility as technologically advanced as this, and the networking was utter crap.
Suoh stood in one of the computer rooms, his gloved hands resting on his hips as he stared up at the cords bunched untidily near the ceiling.
Synen had some great technology here, there was no doubt about that. But some of the simplest procedures had been completely ignored…not only was the hard-wired networking a mess, but it was a fire hazard as well. And a fire in a place like this would cause incalculable data and machine losses. Well, he supposed this was why he had been hired.
He had been hired for his silence. Suoh’s cover was as a hacker and technician for…less than legal transactions, so he had been brought here because he wasn’t likely to betray Synen’s secret. And still, he was treated like a prisoner. Most of the rooms within the laboratory were available for his access – though he didn’t make a habit of wandering too far from familiar passages – but all the exits were electronically sealed. The devices looked foreign – the merge had really messed up the range of his expertise – and he didn’t dare try to hack it for fear of triggering security and forfeiting his own life. That was definitely a last resort.
This was supposed to have been a simple mission.
Slip in, find out what Synen was researching, and slip out. Problem was, Synen was into much deeper – and much less legal – developments than what anyone had been aware, and he couldn’t just slip out. He couldn’t even communicate with Garden or send any information, because all outgoing and incoming signals were completely blocked.
Hopefully after several days of hearing nothing from him, his SeeD partner would understand the weight of the situation and report to Garden, and they would send someone to extricate him from his predicament. After all, the safety of their SeeDs was their first priority, right?
He wished he could put his faith in that policy.
At least days like this almost made him forget the danger he was in. Synen was out, and this part of the facility was empty, leaving Suoh alone with the steady beep and hum of the various consoles. He just had to do his work, right? Keeping his cool under pressure was something he was trained for.
He was more worried about becoming part of Synen’s experiments than having his true occupation discovered…
Suoh pushed a wheeled maintenance stand up against the wall sporting the menacing cords just waiting for the opportunity to set the place ablaze, and carefully climbed on top of it. He moved aside one of the tiles in the ceiling, then hefted himself up into the opening, coughing a bit from the dust and particles of insulation. The space between this floor and the second one wasn’t large, but he had ample room to move around on his knees and, as long as he stayed on the support beams, he shouldn’t be at risk for falling through. He planted his knees firmly, then leaned carefully back out to begin untangling the mess of cords.
Everything needed to be rewired back to the central hub anyway.
After working at the cords for awhile and feeding them through the ceiling into the adjacent data room – tacking them up along the hallway was just lazy – and checking to make sure everything was connected properly, Suoh then began drawing several cables from the second room along the ceiling crawlspace into a much further laboratory, which also needed to be networked to prevent signal loss from corrupting data. It was during this endeavor that Suoh noticed a patch along the beam that had several cords knotted to it, as if to support something. The cords disappeared underneath one of the flimsy tiles on both sides, the tile lifted slightly to allow room for the cables to slide underneath.
….Huh. That was odd. The ends of the cords were tied around the beam, so clearly they didn’t go anywhere. So what was the point of this?
Suoh tugged one of the cords slightly, but it was taut and supporting something heavy. Suoh frowned; this was not a proper method of suspension for anything.
He reached forward and down with the intention of lifting the tile and seeing what the cords were supporting, but it was a bit of a stretch for him from the beam. He tipped forward, his fingers brushing the edge of the tile – ahh, almost there – but the added reach caused his weight to shift just a little too much, and before he could stop it he was tumbling forward. Instinctively, his palm pressed against the tile in a desperate attempt to halt his decline, but the flimsy thing buckled instantly at the assault and Suoh found himself falling into bright, fluorescent light. He perceived suspended color and instinctively grabbed it among the twisted, knotted cords, praying it would be enough to keep him from splitting his skull on the polished floor. Immediately the addition of his weight caused the cords to snap, and both he and the object struck the floor with a heavy thud, but luckily the knock to his head was sharp but minor compared to what might’ve occurred had he had nothing to slow his descent.
Speaking off…
The weight was heavy atop him, and when Suoh shifted to shove the draping thing off of him his padded fingers were met with the soft stroke of flesh and torn cloth, and his eyes widened when he registered the sight of blood and hair and cold skin. Biting hard on his bottom lip to choke back the alarmed cry, Suoh felt the rise of panic and fought to free himself of the tangle of limbs and loose wires with a renewed vigor, his heart hammering in his chest. Finally, he managed to use his shaken arms to push the corpse off of him and rapidly stumble to his feet, reaching for the wall and half-falling around the corner. His back hit the wall and squeezed his eyes closed with a choked sob, sliding to a sit and fighting to force his labored breathing under control.
No matter how he tried, he couldn’t dispel the grotesque image from his mind. A young lady, once vibrant and lovely, now cold and lifeless, mutilated and strung up to hang. Her clothes torn, her flesh scraped, burned, broken, cut…and carved into her chest, a warning…a threat for all trespassers.
Those eyes…
Suoh’s chest constricted in a tight, sharp pain, and no matter how he gasped he couldn’t seem to take in any oxygen. His throat felt equally knotted and tears trailed his pale cheeks, but he quickly lifted a shaking hand to wipe them away, keeping the wet crimson as far from his skin as he could.
He had to get a hold of himself, or he was digging his own grave! No more tears – that would show. Red, puffy eyes would be a dead giveaway to someone as smart as Synen so he had to swallow it down right now. This was…this danger and these circumstances, terrible as they were…these were things he was trained for, right?
The concept of death was something SeeDs were well accustomed with, and Suoh had bid good luck to several peers on their missions only to attend their funerals later. But he was young and usually not found on the battlefield, so he had never seen death so closely…so moist and fresh, cold but undecayed…
It broke his heart. She had deserved so much better than this, and even now she should at least be honored with a proper burial. But Suoh knew he couldn’t permit any connections to be exposed…he couldn’t even…mourn, or pay his respects…
He could only retire to his room in an effort to compose himself before Synen’s return.
Suoh closed his eyes, taking a moment to mentally count and ease his panic and the bile that threatened to rise.
Chase…
Dammit all to hell. A facility as technologically advanced as this, and the networking was utter crap.
Suoh stood in one of the computer rooms, his gloved hands resting on his hips as he stared up at the cords bunched untidily near the ceiling.
Synen had some great technology here, there was no doubt about that. But some of the simplest procedures had been completely ignored…not only was the hard-wired networking a mess, but it was a fire hazard as well. And a fire in a place like this would cause incalculable data and machine losses. Well, he supposed this was why he had been hired.
He had been hired for his silence. Suoh’s cover was as a hacker and technician for…less than legal transactions, so he had been brought here because he wasn’t likely to betray Synen’s secret. And still, he was treated like a prisoner. Most of the rooms within the laboratory were available for his access – though he didn’t make a habit of wandering too far from familiar passages – but all the exits were electronically sealed. The devices looked foreign – the merge had really messed up the range of his expertise – and he didn’t dare try to hack it for fear of triggering security and forfeiting his own life. That was definitely a last resort.
This was supposed to have been a simple mission.
Slip in, find out what Synen was researching, and slip out. Problem was, Synen was into much deeper – and much less legal – developments than what anyone had been aware, and he couldn’t just slip out. He couldn’t even communicate with Garden or send any information, because all outgoing and incoming signals were completely blocked.
Hopefully after several days of hearing nothing from him, his SeeD partner would understand the weight of the situation and report to Garden, and they would send someone to extricate him from his predicament. After all, the safety of their SeeDs was their first priority, right?
He wished he could put his faith in that policy.
At least days like this almost made him forget the danger he was in. Synen was out, and this part of the facility was empty, leaving Suoh alone with the steady beep and hum of the various consoles. He just had to do his work, right? Keeping his cool under pressure was something he was trained for.
He was more worried about becoming part of Synen’s experiments than having his true occupation discovered…
Suoh pushed a wheeled maintenance stand up against the wall sporting the menacing cords just waiting for the opportunity to set the place ablaze, and carefully climbed on top of it. He moved aside one of the tiles in the ceiling, then hefted himself up into the opening, coughing a bit from the dust and particles of insulation. The space between this floor and the second one wasn’t large, but he had ample room to move around on his knees and, as long as he stayed on the support beams, he shouldn’t be at risk for falling through. He planted his knees firmly, then leaned carefully back out to begin untangling the mess of cords.
Everything needed to be rewired back to the central hub anyway.
After working at the cords for awhile and feeding them through the ceiling into the adjacent data room – tacking them up along the hallway was just lazy – and checking to make sure everything was connected properly, Suoh then began drawing several cables from the second room along the ceiling crawlspace into a much further laboratory, which also needed to be networked to prevent signal loss from corrupting data. It was during this endeavor that Suoh noticed a patch along the beam that had several cords knotted to it, as if to support something. The cords disappeared underneath one of the flimsy tiles on both sides, the tile lifted slightly to allow room for the cables to slide underneath.
….Huh. That was odd. The ends of the cords were tied around the beam, so clearly they didn’t go anywhere. So what was the point of this?
Suoh tugged one of the cords slightly, but it was taut and supporting something heavy. Suoh frowned; this was not a proper method of suspension for anything.
He reached forward and down with the intention of lifting the tile and seeing what the cords were supporting, but it was a bit of a stretch for him from the beam. He tipped forward, his fingers brushing the edge of the tile – ahh, almost there – but the added reach caused his weight to shift just a little too much, and before he could stop it he was tumbling forward. Instinctively, his palm pressed against the tile in a desperate attempt to halt his decline, but the flimsy thing buckled instantly at the assault and Suoh found himself falling into bright, fluorescent light. He perceived suspended color and instinctively grabbed it among the twisted, knotted cords, praying it would be enough to keep him from splitting his skull on the polished floor. Immediately the addition of his weight caused the cords to snap, and both he and the object struck the floor with a heavy thud, but luckily the knock to his head was sharp but minor compared to what might’ve occurred had he had nothing to slow his descent.
Speaking off…
The weight was heavy atop him, and when Suoh shifted to shove the draping thing off of him his padded fingers were met with the soft stroke of flesh and torn cloth, and his eyes widened when he registered the sight of blood and hair and cold skin. Biting hard on his bottom lip to choke back the alarmed cry, Suoh felt the rise of panic and fought to free himself of the tangle of limbs and loose wires with a renewed vigor, his heart hammering in his chest. Finally, he managed to use his shaken arms to push the corpse off of him and rapidly stumble to his feet, reaching for the wall and half-falling around the corner. His back hit the wall and squeezed his eyes closed with a choked sob, sliding to a sit and fighting to force his labored breathing under control.
No matter how he tried, he couldn’t dispel the grotesque image from his mind. A young lady, once vibrant and lovely, now cold and lifeless, mutilated and strung up to hang. Her clothes torn, her flesh scraped, burned, broken, cut…and carved into her chest, a warning…a threat for all trespassers.
Those eyes…
Suoh’s chest constricted in a tight, sharp pain, and no matter how he gasped he couldn’t seem to take in any oxygen. His throat felt equally knotted and tears trailed his pale cheeks, but he quickly lifted a shaking hand to wipe them away, keeping the wet crimson as far from his skin as he could.
He had to get a hold of himself, or he was digging his own grave! No more tears – that would show. Red, puffy eyes would be a dead giveaway to someone as smart as Synen so he had to swallow it down right now. This was…this danger and these circumstances, terrible as they were…these were things he was trained for, right?
The concept of death was something SeeDs were well accustomed with, and Suoh had bid good luck to several peers on their missions only to attend their funerals later. But he was young and usually not found on the battlefield, so he had never seen death so closely…so moist and fresh, cold but undecayed…
It broke his heart. She had deserved so much better than this, and even now she should at least be honored with a proper burial. But Suoh knew he couldn’t permit any connections to be exposed…he couldn’t even…mourn, or pay his respects…
He could only retire to his room in an effort to compose himself before Synen’s return.
Suoh closed his eyes, taking a moment to mentally count and ease his panic and the bile that threatened to rise.
Chase…