6077/The Framework: Hacking the Matrix I

The Framework: Hacking the Matrix I
Date of Scene:	12 May 2021
Location:	The Sphere (Bunker BT-0), Deep Beneath Manhattan
Synopsis:	Daisy, Daniel Sousa, and a crack team of SHIELD agents head to the Sphere to find out what happened to May and her team. When they attempt to disconnect them, all hell breaks loose. As always.
Cast of Characters:	Melinda May, Daniel Sousa, Daisy Johnson, Lester Colt
Tinyplot:	The Framework

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Melinda May has posed:
The last message received at the Playground by the team monitoring May's STRIKE team deployment to The Sphere, an abandoned AIM base so deep beneath Manhattan that the lowest of the city's oldest infrastructure is *above* it, was garbled and staticky. "<<Mul..ple Agents Down. Lost...ack of Morse. Cart... May.>> Carol Danvers' voice. <<Going... try to short... whole place... find them. ...Careful, lots of autom...d defenses and...chines.>> No further messages were received. No one came out -- including the formidable Captain Marvel.

It was a team of four of SHIELD's most experienced, capable agents... and no one came back out. To say that the team back at the Playground is concerned, is something of an understatement. So, they've put together a new team -- a stronger team, they hope. More firepower. More expertise. And a whole lot more backup.

That team now stands just inside the heavily reinforced door to the facility. The door is more of a hatch, a pressurized seal like one might find on a submarine and when opened allows the team to enter a cavernous chamber that is almost sphere-like, though cut off at both top and bottom leaving both bottom floor and high roof flat. Various levels run in rings about the room, rising upward towards that roof -- perhaps a dozen in all -- open at the center and blocked off only by railings. Walkways criss-cross that vast gulf. A thick spire rises up in the very center of the chamber -- what looks to be an elevator perhaps.

The hatchway opens up close to the middle level of the sphere. The walls appear to be lined with a variety of dated computer equipment. At various points on the different levels, corridors are cut into the rock, passages disappearing into shadowed darkness leading away from this central hub.

Nothing stirs, no lights beyond what they bring offer any illumination and if the equipment they can see works, it certainly gives no sign of it. It is eerily quiet.

Melinda May has posed:
There are, however, signs of a battle, revealed as a team of SHIELD combat engineers set up portable search lights and a small, EMP-hardened genny to power their equipment. They weren't kidding about bringing extra firepower. The genny is shielded with kinetic barriers and cables run from it to the lights, but also to a pair of portable heavy defense turrets. The engineers are in combat armour -- as should be any field agent entering this space, who doesn't have either natural protection against toxins and lasers, or a suitable combat rig of their own to compensate.

The last time a team went in here -- before May's STRIKE team -- there was poison gas. So face masks with filters are a must. "There are high levels of some sort of knock out gas in the air," one of the engineers, Jill Maddox, announces, looking up from her scanner. "It's got a weird sodium pentathol derivative mixed in. We're going to need to vent this place."

"I've got pingback from two SHIELD-issue portable comm repeaters, but minimal energy readings, otherwise" a second tech, Sanjay Ghosh, reports. "And all of it is registering about as deep as you can get in this place -- outside the Sphere's interior perimeter. So... down a side corridor, maybe?"

"Are we sure the defenses are inoperable?" This from Sarah Collingwood, an L6 who specializes in Search and Rescue. She shines a light on the metalic corpse of what looks like a ten-foot-long mechanical centipede that's hanging from the central catwalk ahead of them. The robotic creature remains inert, a burnt out husk of metal, ceramic, and plastic.

"No," Ghosh replies, looking up from his tablet. "But based on my readings, I'm betting they set off one hell of an EMP up here. If the defenses *aren't* dead, then they're hardened like you wouldn't believe."

"Oh, I'd believe it," Collingwood replies. She's seen the shit May gets into. Heard stories about the rest. And Carol Danvers? She's a freakin' Avenger... who is nowhere to be seen. Collingwood isn't discounting *anything*.

"I've got a pair of rappelling lines over here." Mark McLaren, Collingwood's usual partner in crime, shines his portable light on one of the rails. "Probably May and Carter. Danvers and Morse are both flight capable."

"So... maybe they're trapped down below?" That's Collingwood's best guess, based on what all they're seeing. She turns to the command team. "How do you want to handle this? We can secure this platform, maintain a means of egress, and deploy a secondary defensive perimeter. We've got four more squads." Sixteen extra agents, in addition to the four setting up on the platform -- Piper, Davis, Keller, and Diaz among them. All of them in power armor and armed with heavy weapons and rescue gear.

"I've got a set of DWARFS, too," Maddox adds. "And pingers, if we want to augment the map Agent Fitz made the first time he was here."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
This was new.

Just having gotten his updated prosthetic now he's wearing heavy armour and carrying a raygun. Normally he doubted they'd let him come so soon after getting his upgrade but with Peggy among the missing, he was happy to play the 'SHIELD martyr saint' card to get brought along after countless assurances he could handle himself and would not be getting killed.
Essentially a probie Daniel keeps to the edge of the group and does what he's told, though he does venture to Johnson. "The dwarves are machines right? Not people?" still despite his confusion he glances around the place with soft eyes taking in the scene for what it was and trying not to put his own assumptions on it. looking for any clue of what else might have hit May's team and any lurking dangers that might still be out there, fried turrets or not.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy was one of those agents clad in protective combat armor, along with a respirator. It's all very high tech, which makes the young agent say, "Starship Troopers, becoming a citizen, here I go ..." which is mostly aimed at her relieving some of that tension that was running through her ever since that message had reached the Playground. Some of their top agents missing, her friends. But the training she had received from those very same agents was coming to the fore now.

She wasn't panicking. Hands weren't trembling. No, instead she was filled with a sense of purpose. Of finding where her friends were. And bringing them back. Easier said than done of course.

"This computer equipment..., they are like relics, we barely have anything compatible with it anymore." but there were still a few things! "We will need to go further down to find anything with power though." and perhaps it will give them more information on what happened here.

She takes stock of the teams gathered, the rappeling lines. They went down, that much was certain.

"We should set up a secondary defense perimeter. Keep this platform as our rendezvous point as needed." She says. And perhaps showing a lot more restraint than in the past she says to Maddox. "Get those DWARFs up and mapping the place. We can't rush head first into this." May would be proud with the restraint! Maybe!

"As the DWARFs map it we will move after." She nods at Collingwood.

Daniel's question brings a small grin out of Daisy, "Yes, those." she points to the small flying machines that Maddox is handling. "Ready to come venture down this hole, Chief Sousa?" she nods over at those other four setting up camp. Seems like they were being drafted to go too!

Lester Colt has posed:
     Spreaking of rayguns there's lester colt dressed to the 9's with his heavy armor and his heavy duty laser rifle designed by his wife. He's wearing the latest and greatest in prototype technology she could design with a heavy duty jetpack on his back to provide enough thrust to lift him off the ground in that heavy suit of armor.

     He's less than comfortable but it's not the first time that he's had to go out and about in combat gear like this. The bald man adjusts his durag beneath his combat helmet into place one last time securing his face mask into place with an audible click.

     "Too late to say I'm not a fan of being underground?" He offers with a bright smile of white teeth as he flicks the switch on his laser rifle sending a charge through the entire shaft of the gun as it comes to life with brilliant blue energy despite appearing from the outside to be a conventional M4 carbine.

Melinda May has posed:
Collingwood gives Daisy a nod and glances to Maddox. The engineer first releases the pingers and then the DWARFs, the information soon appearing on her tablet.

Notably enough, at least from Daisy's point of view, the area is entirely seismicly stable. There are no particular vibrations of power aside from what the genny behind them is putting out and the constant, almost subconscious thrum of whatever is turned on way down in the bowels of the facility -- some six levels and change down. Given the hulking corpses of robobugs scattered throughout the place, there's a good chance Daisy would feel a lot more vibrations, were there any more of the damned things. But, no. The place really does seem inert.

Piper's team readies a new set of belaying lines, pulling up the lines used by Carter and May. Collingwood begins directing the other three teams to start securing the current level while Maddox finishes compiling her digital image of the facility.

Maddox swipes her screen, throwing the image from her tri-tab to a smaller unit. She crosses over to Daniel and Daisy, offering it to one of them. "Here's what we got," she says. "No telling where our people may be, but that chamber at the far end of the northeast corridor off the bottom level is where Ghosh says the energy signature is coming from. I'm guessing that's the best place to start."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel lets Daisy take the unit even as he studies the screen. "Seems like a reasonable place to start," he agrees when Maddox explains what's going on.

He nods to Dasy when she asks if he's ready to descend. "Right behind you," he says. "Just lead the way." He says as he slings his weapon and moves towards the railing.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The way the vibrations work here is curious. It also makes Daisy let her senses expand. Seeking for those signatures of her friends .., or of other denizens. "Power is shut down all the way up here... Only further down am I even starting to feel anything.." a frown. "Six levels, maybe more. I wonder how far down this thing go..."

She gestures for them to start moving. "Alright, lets go. Colt, you are with us. If anything moves down there that aren't our friends, put a shot between their eyes." if the robo creatures have eyes. But ah, it's the meaning that matters!

She nods at Piper as the cables are set again. "Alright people, our target is that chamber identified by the DWARFs. Lets move quietly and keep sharp. Everyone is coming home today." hopefully that included the missing Agents too. Hopefully. A look then given to Daniel. She knows what this means to the man.

Hooking herself to cable she then starts rappelling down, off towards the lower levels so they can start their search.

Lester Colt has posed:
     Colt stands tall and confident watching as the bots get to work. He shoulders his rifle for a moment checking the sites during this little moment of downtime. It's just a moment spent to adjust them into proper order for close quarters combat in an underground setting as they are entering.

     He takes a deep breath in of that filtered air through the mask. "Thought you'd never ask." Kicking his feet against the ground he throws himself into the air his jetpack throwing him across the air and into the pit on the ground hovering his way down along as well. A light blue fire as he keeps rifle at the ready for any sign of enemy contact while their descent further into the facility begins.

Melinda May has posed:
Three teams of four-person squads spread out throughout that main level, beginning to clear debris and double check for any possible hostiles. But everything remains quiet. Piper and her team belay alongside Daisy and Daniel, touching down almost at the same time as them on the basalt floor six levels below. Presumably, Lester's jetpack makes belaying unnecessary. At the bottom, off their lines, the team shoulder their weapons and spread out defensively.

The floor is littered with the metallic corpses of a veritable army of robot centipedes and spiders -- the smallest of the the size of a german shepherd, most of them closer to ten feet long. They've clearly suffered catastrophic damage from plasma blasts, probably from SHIELD heavy plasma rifles, from the look of it. They've fallin a pattern that suggests they only way the missing agents could possibly have gone is down the long side corridor toward that energy source.

Closer to the chamber at the far end, it becomes easier for Daisy to separate the vibrational signatures of her friends from the ambient vibrations of the power thrumming through the walls and ceiling. Stepping into that chamber, however, explains just why those familiar signatures somehow seem... off.

The chamber itself is sizeable, perhaps twenty or twenty-five feet in diameter. A mass of cables and wires, some of them as thick as tree trunks, snake up to a central column in the middle of the room. There is some sort of containment unit in the center of the column, but it is dim and murky, hard to see into. There might be a shape floating, fetus-like, within it. (If a fetus was the size of a grown man.) Then again, there might not. It's not like the lighting in this place is in any way illuminating.

Banks of consoles surround the column, the mass of cables flowing around and through them. Their technology seems based in the 80's, but made to look like some weird sci-fi show -- all curved lines and blinking lights. Altogether, it looks like the twisted roots and trunk of a mangrove tree, leaching into the basalt floor and up into the metal ceiling.

More disturbing still, however, are the heavy cables running from the central trunk, across the ceiling, towards the far wall. Energy clearly flows through those cables, a rippling blue glow transferring through translucent material to and from the main trunk to four strange pods set into the far wall.

The pods are six or seven feet long, and about four feet wide. They are cylindrical, a little tapered in a weird, coffin-like way. Mostly made of metal, there is smokey glass covering the top third of the front of each pod. An eerie blue glow shines behind the glass, the details too obscured to make out from so far away.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Down, down, down Daniel goes until his feet fouch solid ground then he unhooks from the belaying rig and unslings his weapon. Not too different than his time in the army. Well? except for the metal carcass of robot spiders and centipedes, that was definitely new.

He resists the urge to comment though but his gaze lingers on them, the 'wow factor' readable in his body language even with a mask and armour in place.

Daniel's heart jumps into his throat when he sees the pods, he takes an urgent step forward but holds back after that, looking to Daisy asking "What's the play?" before his eyes go back to studying the pods at a distance.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The robot-massacre on the ground makes Daisy furrow her brows under the visor. This was some heavy resistance they found down here. But then again, she wasn't expecting less considering Captain Marvel had been involved in this. Yet maybe not here. The shots, the patterns. It didn't have the Avenger's signature..

Through comms she sends. "I am sensing their signature." A pause, "But they sound .., off. Though, still alive." and that was all that mattered. Step by step they make their way through the corridors, the lanterns on her shoulders giving a dim image of what's ahead of them. Oh, how she truly hopes she isn't in some wicked version of Aliens.
Upon reaching the chamber she takes a moment to look around, the 80s tech along with those very strange energy cables.

"Piper, Davis. Secure the entrance." She tells them with a nod. Then to Daniel, "Lets move, slowly. Don't touch anything just yet. Lets approach and see what more we can find.." and get a better look at those pods too.

"Lester, seen anything like this before?" she knew the Agent was long lived.

Her weapon points here and there, the light on her suit picking a few more details as she turns one way or another.

Lester Colt has posed:
     Lester helps down anyone who wants to trust him with a free jetpack ride down zipping with speed to the ground floor with a speedy ride taking in the sights and the sounds. It's a strange place, an unsettling place.

     He's on edge with rifle at the ready to blast anything that might come out of the woodwork to play. His feet finally touch down onto the ground his jetpack kicking off into silent running before shutting off all together allowing him to walk along with the rest of the group.

     "Few movies, some canned millspec projects back in the late seventies, but nothing that ever went to market." He looks around slowly taking care to practice proper weapons safety and never once point his weapon at anything he'd feel uncomfortable shooting. "This is almost all new territory for me."

Melinda May has posed:
Piper and Davis move to the door and setup in cover positions there. Keller and Diaz slowly circle towards those pods, heads on swivels as the check shadows for hidden threats. Their suit lights throw beams through the dark that occasionally illuminate strange tangles of wires and cables, but nothing comes crawling out of the woodwork at them.

Diaz edges toward the nearest of the pods, weapon at the ready. She peers in through the smokey glass, at the weird glow within. "Oh, sweet mother of god." She looks back over her shoulder to Keller. "I think it's Captain Marvel..."

Indeed, looking in any of the pods reveals one of the missing agents -- Carol Danvers, Bobbi Morse, Peggy Carter, and Melinda May. It's possible to guess they're alive. Beyond Daisy's clear sense of their continued respriration and cellular vibrations, their eyes dart beneath closed lids as if they are in REM sleep. Other than that, however, their faces are unnerving to behold.

Blue circuitry lines run beneath their skin, giving them all a bluish tint. The lines look like they've been stenciled on with a fine tipped pen, save that, occasionally, they pulse with light that flows in and out like waves on the shore. Tendrils of wires can just be seen, thanks to those waves of light, piercing their skin in micropatterns, clusterered around their temples, spread through their hair, and woven through core muscle masses. For the most part, their armour and tac suits seem intact, however, the wires pass straight through the material, sometimes having had to route around servo joins -- in the case of the exoskeletons of some of the power armor they wear.

To put it mildly, disconnecting them is going to be... problematic.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel follows Daisy's orders keeping close, walking carefully and not touching anything until he can see Peggy's face in one of those pods. He moves to her pod at once, staring inside at the wires and everything else going on inside.

"I think her eyes are moving," he calls back to the others. "But there's wires going right through her armour," he lets out a muttered curse. "It's always got to be complicated." He turns back around to look at Daisy and the others. "So, any idea how we get them out of there, and how can I help?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
And here was Daisy thinking she could be getting into some kind of Aliens horror show. This was worse! When they check the pods, see their figures inside with the blue tendrils connecting them. It makes Daisy both seethe with anger but also relieved at finding them .., alive. Or whatever this was.

Info is passed up to Collingwood. "We found them. They are alive, but in stasis. We need to look into this further. Send in another team so we can secure this room." a look then to Daniel when he moves closer to Peggy's pod. She reaches over to place a hand on the man's shoulder. "REM sleep." She says, "We can't just disconnect them without knowing more, or we could seriously damage their brains.." which would most be akin to killing them..

"Search around, computers, stations, monitors. Anything that appears to still be working. We need to find a way to hook into the place."

Then on comms, <<Maddox, going to need an engineer over here.>>

As for Daisy, she starts searching for sources of power with her own vibrational powers, hoping it will lead to any kind of console, or monitor of any kind that she can try to connect to.

Lester Colt has posed:
     Colt is almost too busy keeping a perimeter to notice what's in the pods. It's only once Sousa points out the contents that he turns his attention and lets out a low. "Son of a bitch." Under his breath. Looking towards one pod and then the next. "Looks like they got the whole set." He grumbles shaking his head slightly from one side to the other before turning his attention back to perimeter duty as he falls back closer towards the pods.

     He lowers himself down onto one knee keeping his rifle raised just in case. "As much as I'd love to just start smashing pods Daisy's right, though if I could find a filtration port for insertion of nutrient fluids I may be able to quickly mix up a chemical compound that could cause a rejection of the nodes inserted into their neural pathways which might just lead to an emergency ejection from the pods." He pushes his goggles more firmly against his face. "I'd just need that port, and a little bit of time to formulate the compound."

Melinda May has posed:
"<<Roger that. On our way,>>" Collingwood replies over coms. On the entry landing, she signals to Maddox and Ghosh to pack up their gear. She and McLaren will escort them down. She then calls another team to assist. "Phelps, grab your team and deploy down to the lower level. Secure the floor. McLaren and I are bringing in the engineers."

"You got it," Phelps responds. "You heard the woman. Let's move." In short order, he and his three team mates are relaying down into the depths to join the others. Collingwood and her team aren't far behind.

While Phelps and co remain outside the room, securing the corridor leading to the chamber and starting to clear debris away to create a less impeded pathway between the corridor and escape, Collingwood and McLaren enter the chamber with Maddox and Ghosh in tow. All four of them are carrying analysis equipment -- albeit not nearly as much as they may ultimately need. But it's a start. "Where do you want it?" the L6 S&R expert asks. If nothing else, she's got field medic training, which can be helpful. And McLaren is an engineer in his own right. Meanwhile, Maddox and Ghosh bring their DWARFs and scanning equipment in and start a more in-depth scan of the room.

Most of the energy in the room flows from the central collumn, out to the walls. Still, there are consoles around the base of the cluster, some of which have screens attached -- albeit old CRT screens embedded in retrofuturistic casings. It's possible something there will work. The power seems stable enough.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Nodding Daniel steps back from Peggy's pod. "Wasn't going to just rip out wires," he tells Daisy his eyes still on Peggy's pod for a few moments longer before looking to her and Colt. "I'm feeling pretty out of my depth here but if there's something I can do here let me know, whatever it takes to get," he glances to the pods. "Our people home I'm up for it," he says looking back to the more tech savvy agents.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Lets set that around the pods. Also we need this room fully lit up, someone get some lights and a generator going here." Daisy calls out, moving around and gesturing for people to begin settling in. There was an urgency to her, but also purpose. Now that they had found them it was time to get them out of whatever they were in. Though she knew this might very well take some time.

"We will also need to run diagnostics on them, see their overall medical condition." She lets out a sigh. "We might need FitzSimmons here." she would want the best of them here.

"We are all out of our depth a little, Daniel. That's why we are a team, we will get there. Together." An assuring nod to the Agent and a smile.

She moves to one of the tables to get out her backpack, beginning to take out some of her own tech. Laptop, tablet. The works, all the needed to do some hacking!

"Help us setting up camp, Daniel." Then to Lester, "We can't just eject them yet without knowing what's going on. I know we all want to take them out as soon as possible but ..., we can't just rush into it. Even Captain Marvel was taken by this so..." she trails off. Something capable of taking out Captain Marvel. She exhales slowly and gets back to work.

Lester Colt has posed:
     Lester looks over towards Daisy for a brief moment. He's about to say something before he just catches himself on seniority and instead falls back silent closing back shut the pouch on his uniform returning to guarding that entrance as folks begin to go about the arduous process of setting up lighting in the surrounding area for the pods.

     "My element is shooting things and labwork, this isn't really either so far. So safe to say I'm out of my element as well Sousa."

Melinda May has posed:
There's a quiet, efficient scramble in response to Daisy's orders. Collingwood starts directing the engineers and calling Phelps to get his team schlepping more equipment down here. Someone sends an update back to the Playground, letting them know the agents have at least been found, even if they can't be moved. In short order, a small ground camp starts to build up at the far end of the corridor, in the Sphere itself, not so far from the central spire that is an elevator shaft (and would be a whole lot more useful if Carol hadn't ripped into it about a level or two from the very top).

When Daisy starts to hook the laptop into the consoles around the electromangroveincubator thing in the middle of the pod chamber, however... things start going a little off the rails. There's the sound of metal scraping over metal and almost before anyone has a chance to react, Ghosh lets out a shriek as he is wrenched off his feet by long, animated tendrils of wire that spring from new pods lowering into the room from within the draping mass of wires and cables above. The metal tentacles wrap around his waist, his throat, and his limbs, pulling him back toward a pod. He struggles, but cannot break free himself. McLaren grabs his rifle and starts firing at the pod beyond the hapless engineer.

More pods and more darting cables lash out at anyone in the pod chamber.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Nodding to Daisy, joins the team in setting up lights, working quickly trying to stay ahead of his worries. Though none of the work is as efficient as the tendrils at putting Daniel's worries from his head. Ghnosh's shriek has him whirl around unslinging his weapon, eyes going wide at the sight before him. "What in the hell?" he murmurs but when McClaren starts firing at the pod, for his part Daniel tries to trace the tendrils with his eyes and once he finds their source he aims his fire there trying to cut the agent free.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy gets to work on connecting her computer to the interface she finds. Old tech..., but even old tech eventually falls to the wiles of this master hackerette! Or would if it wouldn't try to retaliate with TENTACLES. She lets out a sigh. "You had to talk, Lester!" this about him being good at shooting things. Good chances for it now.

"Defensive perimeter. Priority in keeping our people safe.." She looks around briefly and then goes back to focusing on her computer and what she finds there, tapping on the keys as she attempts to see if she can find a way to break in and stop these defenses from activating further.

<<Teams, get on alert. We have activity inside the chamber. Eyes open.>> She isn't sure if there may be *more* tentacles out there.

Lester Colt has posed:
     Lester kicks off into the air with a thrust of high energy from the base of his jetpack throwing himself into the air up near the ceiling. He fires off a burst of rounds of bright blue energy from the end of his rifle. Zrt zrt zrt goes his rifle sending one beam after another in the direction of the wires.

     "Aint pinning this on me." He offers as he zips about the room, shrinking down in size in order to make himself a harder target to pin down. "I wanted to use chemicals, you're the one who decided computers were the way of the future."

Melinda May has posed:
The tentacles lancing down on Ghosh are severed by blasts from various weapons, both at the source and nearer to his body. The problem? He's not the only one being picked up. Collingwood dances and spins in the midst of the chamber, dodging flying cables as she tries to keep Maddox from being caught as well. Tentacles lash out toward Daniel and Lester, and even toward Daisy. From the hallway, Phelps emerges into the room with a bandolier of low-yield, small radius EMPs. He pulls the pin on one and tosses it at the nearest pod -- farthest away from where the agents of May's team hang suspended. There's a flash of whiteblue light and the tentacles in that small group go dead, falling limply against the wall with a clatter.

So, that worked.

In the distance, the portable plasma turrets the engineers setup on the main level can be heard rattling. It's probably safe to say the agents out there have become aware of the pods and tentacles, too.

If not more centipedes.

But, no. No robots stir. Just the pods and their grasping cables, trying to catch people and drag them inside -- before others start following Phelp's lead and throwing small distruptor charges.

"Make a perimeter!" Maddox cries, hauling Ghosh closer to the consoles. "Get everyone inside, over here, near May and the others. I'll set up a disruptor field."

"Faraday cage," Ghosh gasps, grabbing hold of Maddox as he tries to pull himself up. He's bruised, but not badly injured. "Keep our signals in, their signals out."

"Don't want to distrupt communication to the others," Maddox replies.

"Don't wanna end up in a tin can, either!" Ghosh retorts.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
As a cable comes for Daniel he jumps out of the way, some part of his brain revelling in doing that despite the tension of the moment. He lays into one cables with a plasma blast but he knows it's a losing fight, too many cables. Though the distruption charges change the math. "Okay, I am getting to appreciate technology," he remarks before linking up with Maddox and Ghosh. "Just pick one and let's get it done! We don't have a lot of time here." Old Field Director habits die hard. He takes up a position with his back to the pods ready to blast any more cables that come their way.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The taptapping on her keyboard is put on hold when Daisy notes one of those tentacles coming her way. Oh no nono. She focuses, lifting both her hands towards the onrushing tentacle as she lets her vibrations course through the thing. Right before that tentacle wraps itself around her she finds it, that breaking point. The tentacle falls apart and she exhales in relief before giving a thumbs up. "Good job." this about the disruptor charges.

"You heard him. Gather up everyone!" Her focus now on keeping those tentacles at bay, vibrational fields sent here and there to cover any agent's escape that may need it to gather in with the rest of them. As the two go about discussing the better way to do it she chines in. "Get the disruptor field up." she says. "If we break the connection between the mainframe and the pods we can damage the captured Agents!"

Lester Colt has posed:
     Lester is doing his part to assist in firing on the cables of other people while flying away from the one that's attacking him. He's a small man at the moment standing only at 6 inches tall. Twisting and turning with his jetpack to carry him he flies with the greatest of ease speeding along with a great deal of speed.

     "Heads up." He calls out as he zips overhead just above Sousa chased just a few inches behind by a collection of cables trying to outrun them as he fires off more blasts of blue laser fire from his automatic rifle. The lack of recoil makes it fairly easy for him to maintain pressure on target.

Melinda May has posed:
As the agents gather in a tight circle beyond the pods, Maddox spreads out a wire. "Phelps!" she calls. She holds up her hands. The team lead tosses her his bandolier, with whatever charges are left. She swiftly attaches a series of distruptor charges to the wire and ties them into the drones she's gathered back to her. (Poor little DWARFs.)

As the others settle in behind her, she shouts, "Fire in the hole!" and pushes the button -- flinching as she does.

The charges ignight, channeling through the wire to the drones. An energy field errupts between them, creating a proverbial line-in-the-sand. Tentacles cross it, but then fall limp and lifeless, swinging back out again.

For now, they're safe.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daneil watches all that happens with a degree of wonder until the field erupt and he takes a moment to catch his breath. "So that'll hold then?" he asks glancing at the field. "And what do we do in the meantime? Guessing we need to get our people out and ready to move before whatever that is" he gestures at the shield. "Drops?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy lets out a sigh of relief when the disruptor field gets put up and protects the rest of the team. She grins. "Good work everyone.", then she gesturing to the consoles, "This should give us enough time to hack in and see what this is about. Hopefully start disconnecting them from the machines." Hopefully.

She approaches the console area where the computer is, starting to work on it, trying to sort heads from tails on what they are dealing with here!

Lester Colt has posed:
     Lester does a little loop-de-loop in the air before landing down with a light touch down onto the shoulder of Sousa to collect his breath. The tiny man barely a noticeable weight at his 6 inch height as he collects his breath resting his rifle up against his shoulder for the time being just a moment's pause.

     "Well we've got to hope it holds at least." Looking over towards the field director for a long moments pause as this is the first time he's been able to get a good look at the man. "You really are him aren't you?" He lets out a low chuckle before lowering his tiny rifle back down into his hands just in case more of the tendrils should show for them.

Melinda May has posed:
Maddox sits back on her heels, letting out a sigh of relief. Collingwood grabs a first aid kit and turns to attend to Ghosh, while McLaren and Phelps adopt a guard posture, just in case.

"Do you think it will be safe to move them?" Collingwood ask as she starts to bandage Ghosh's throat, glancing back to Daisy.

"Not if we can't neutralize whatever's going on out there," Phelps says. "Listen." And, indeed, the turrets can still be heard firing.

Regardless, what Daisy will find on that console is a highly sophisticated code wall. The firewall alone is a helluva lot more robust than old 80's coding protocols would suggest it should be. Beyond the usual structures and languages are stranger syntaxes that don't really match up with anything historical or modern. It's either like someone has super encrypted everything or they've created their own language entirely.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel checks over his weapon as Lester lands on his shoulder. "Last time I checked," he says with a smile. "Neat trick," he says nodding to the man's 6" form. "Wanna cover that flank, I'll take care of the rest?" he asks.

"Sounds like there's still some action going on out there," Daniel agrees with Phelps. "Any idea how we shut all the defenses down without cutting power to the pods?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy lets out a whistle when she starts hitting that firewall. "What the heck..., this is some serious coding. Whoever did this is a coding genius.." her brows furrow and she leans in to the screen. "This is going to take a while to crack in, so until we find a way out, or I find a way in we will be staying here for a while."

Cracking knuckles, rolling her neck. She is ready to go.

Lester Colt has posed:
     "Well while we're here we can enjoy a nice friendly bout of guard duty." Colt flicks round on Daniels shoulder to face the other direction with his laser rifle looking towards the doorway. His eyes drop on the door with firm lock on the spot. "Who knows maybe by the time you crack it backup'll be here."

Melinda May has posed:
All of which means the team is stuck here for the time being. Phelps and McLaren keep their ears on the fight outside, passing on what they've learned to the teams outside and above this room. The whine of EMP grenades slowly begins to punctuate the whistle of plasma fire. So, there's hope.

Meanwhile, Maddox and Ghosh work on reinforcing that disruptor field, bickering in a manner not at all dissimilar to FitzSimmons about the best way to extend the small drones' energy reserves. And Collingwood starts investigating just what sort of medical interface they might be able to jury rig.

Beyond the energy field, the tentacle cables in this room retreat back toward the empty pods. But there's no doubt they're just waiting for a chance to strike. The cold blue lights on the tips of their lengths gleam predatorily in the darkness.

They have all the time in the world.