Operation: WIDEAWAKE - Log 1
Nov. 14th, 2021 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsX-Force begins their infiltration of the facility, with the first team working to compromise security in order to slip a second team inside. It doesn't go entirely to plan.
"I thought you were on vacation, Scott?" Security was moderate at the facility; shared between DARPA and Raytheon research teams. Unlike many of the other top secret ones, their research was focused on optics and imaging, making it significantly a less sexy site to be targeted by terrorists. Nestled in the hills of Virginia, it could have easily been mistaken for any kind of development campus. The guard by the scanner took a look at the ID presented.
"So did I. But it seems at least one project lead is utterly determined that if he doesn't get his legal clearance yesterday, the Pentagon is going to fire us all." Scott Marks rolled his eyes. "Hopefully it will only take an hour and I can get back to my sofa."
"Staycation?"
"I have to finish the drywall in the basement, so Alice took the kids up to visit her mother for a few days to let me work. Fortunately, she doesn't know it's only going to take a few hours." They shared a laugh. "Hey, someone said you got a new dog?"
"Oh, yeah. A little German Shepherd mix."
"Pictures?"
"Here." The guard brought them up on his phone and passed it over as he swiped the security card through. Scott flipped through them.
"Look at those paws. He's going to be a big one."
"Yeah, we wanted something the kids could wrestle."
"Cute." He passed back the phone and walked through the gate, backpack slung over his shoulder. "See you later, man."
It was amazing the information that people willingly gave up online. It hadn't taken them long to map out much of the staff in the public part of the faculty, including Scott Marks, whose vacation lined up with their window, and security guard Wilson Jackson, and his new puppy, brought home just Sunday, after Marks' vacation had started. Kevin tapped his ear as he strode through the halls.
"I'm in." He said quietly over the broadcom, before switching over to his mission specific one. How's progress, Lewis?"
Darcy had dropped a small stack of parcels at the front desk and was currently working her charm on the front desk. "Hey Elizabeth? I know you're supposed to be picky about guest passes, but Cousin Flo's in town and all of my drops this afternoon are outside. Construction sites and similar, y'know? Think I could get a pass to the restroom? Won't take me more than 10 minutes, tops." She gave Elizabeth a small smile, ramping it up to sunny when the pass was handed over and she was buzzed through. "You're an embarrassment saver, thanks! I'll have the next person that drops here bring you a cookie."
She walked down the hall with purpose, stopping to check her shoelaces and tighten them as she passed an open security station. A stumble, and what looked like a wrapped tampon fell out of her hand, leaving her grasping after it and planting the drive in one of the open lower spaces. She stood, looking embarassed, and made her way into the bathroom. "Done," she said into the mission specific band. A few minutes later she was washing her hands and heading back down the hallway, giving Elizabeth the pass and a nod of thanks as she left the building.
"I'm out," she said over the broadcom a few minutes later, making her way down the sidewalk.
"Good." Kevin said into his earpiece, switching forms to that of the security guard who had checked him in. When they'd brushed their hands handling the phone, it had given the shapeshifter everything he needed to copy him exactly. Kevin stopped at a door and pressed his thumb against the biometric reader. It hummed for a moment and clicked over to green, opening it up. He slipped in and made his way along the corridor. Darcy's planted drive should have just slightly modified the external motion sensors to create a narrow path along the fence to the building.
"I'm at the rear door. Bringing down security now." He pressed his thumb into another reader, once again getting an all clear result. He stepped forward to the door. "Just getting the----ARRRGHFUCK!!!" Kevin's harsh scream rang over the comms for a moment. Everyone froze for a second, and he finally came back on.
"I'm fine. It's fine." His voice sounded slurred and mushy. "There's a goddamn EM field on the backdoor not shown on the security plans we stole. Cypher is going to need to take it down as well once Velocidad plants the tap."
"We're really set on that code name? Vaguely racist, not even really accurate?" Gabriel sighed. "Also, you sound like you're having a stroke." He took his earpiece out, not really interested in hearing Kevin's retort. If he were fast enough, the other man would still be chiding him when he was done anyway.
Gabriel enjoyed the simplicity of jobs like these, especially lately: the ones where he could just speed himself up, as he was doing now, and run through a building with abandon. Moving at a speed beyond what was reasonably detectable on camera, he scaled the fence, hopped down and darted through the narrow area that Darcy had cleared for him.
The door that gave him access to the facility had a sign that, in large red letters, read "Emergency Exit Only." Gabriel snorted as he tentatively jiggled the handle; it opened easily, and so he popped in. From there, he clambered up a largely unused stairwell — entirely too many stairs, he'd been skipping out on cardio — to the roof.
"Okay," he said as he fumbled his earpiece back in. "I'm on top." He glanced around, his eyes landing on an electrical panel with cables. "Give me two minutes to tap into the system, and it's all yours."
"I'm in, I'm out, I'm on top? Are we -really- not doing phrasing anymore?" Doug quipped into his mic. Give him two minutes of potentially dead air, and he was absolutely going to start making stupid Archer jokes. Especially if people were going to give him low hanging fruit like that. "All right, I'm reading the tap now," he told Gabe as he began his intrusion into the computer side of the security system. "I'm looking for that EM field you hit, Changeling...what the hell, it's almost like some kind of weaponized degaussing system. I guess that's one way to keep proprietary secrets proprietary, fry everyone's mobile phone if they go through the wrong door." Their comms were shielded against that sort of thing, but still.
"Okay, that's down, and the path in is now obscured from the surveillance." He tapped a few more keys to verify. "Clock is ticking."
There was a long pause before the comms clicked back to life. "Doorsh 'pen. Cannn bck on owe." The mushy voice was almost unrecognizable.
Darcy flicked Doug in the shoulder as she slid into the van. "I'll show you phrasing," she grumped quietly before tapping her earpiece. "I could start calling you zippy instead, but we can fuss about it later. Changeling, you able to get out or you need a hand?"
"I'll check on him on the way out," Gabriel said. He began retrieving his equipment and preparing to step out. "Also, sorry, are you referring to my codename quip from, like seven minutes ago? We work a little faster than that here. Try to keep up." He didn't wait for a response before retracing his steps. "Lotta security here," he added. "EM field on top of everything else?" Three seconds later, he'd appeared in front of Kevin. "This asset must be impressive."
It became immediately clear why Kevin couldn't clear himself from the building. One of his legs was ended with a puddling stump of flesh. The other was bent in six different places. It was as if his flesh had melted like wax, deforming his entire body from the head down. Only one eye was visible and his mouth was obscured with foot long dangling lips. He gestured at Gabe with a hand sporting five entirely different shaped and length fingers going in all directions.
"bishuss wuth drr." He garbled out.
"Not the nicest thing you've ever said to me, but I won't hold it against you." Gabriel had the manners not to shudder or look remotely disgusted. Or maybe he just wasn't squeamish these days. "Look, I'm not strong enough to scoop you up, so just put your arm around me. We'll go slow, and maybe by the time we stumble outta here, your magnetic hangover will be over, and you'll look like your classic postwar self."
Kevin nodded (or at least some bits moved in a possibly affirmative response) and slung a misshapen arm over Gabe's shoulders, bracing against the younger man to try and help propel himself.
The slurring was definitely alarming, and the hints at what the situation entailed from Gabe's perspective over the comms even more so. "Start the van," he told Darcy. "Our window is closing, you guys, can you pick up the pace any?" He cracked the back door on the van in preparation for their return.
Gabriel didn't even hide his exasperation as he and Kevin appeared, rather suddenly, next to the van. "My time is not your time, remember? That's literally the whole deal." Kevin, of course, was still in bad shape. Gabriel threw open the door. "Someone help me help him up, and then let's roll."
"Shit." Darcy blinked a few times, processing, then moved into action to help Gabriel lift Kevin into the van. "One of you drive, I'll... well, our first aid class at the mansion is obviously inadequate, but I can at least try to make sure he's comfortable."
Doug slipped behind the wheel, putting the van in gear and backing it out of the side lot they had stashed it in. "Nothing to see, just backin it up..." he murmured to himself. Once they were on the road, he flicked his eyes to the rearview to check on what was happening. "EM fields can screw up peoples' powers," he told them. "That dingus Arcade likes to use them." He spared a hearty mental 'fuck THAT guy' before continuing. "It should be temporary, usually a matter of hours or days."
"I thought you were on vacation, Scott?" Security was moderate at the facility; shared between DARPA and Raytheon research teams. Unlike many of the other top secret ones, their research was focused on optics and imaging, making it significantly a less sexy site to be targeted by terrorists. Nestled in the hills of Virginia, it could have easily been mistaken for any kind of development campus. The guard by the scanner took a look at the ID presented.
"So did I. But it seems at least one project lead is utterly determined that if he doesn't get his legal clearance yesterday, the Pentagon is going to fire us all." Scott Marks rolled his eyes. "Hopefully it will only take an hour and I can get back to my sofa."
"Staycation?"
"I have to finish the drywall in the basement, so Alice took the kids up to visit her mother for a few days to let me work. Fortunately, she doesn't know it's only going to take a few hours." They shared a laugh. "Hey, someone said you got a new dog?"
"Oh, yeah. A little German Shepherd mix."
"Pictures?"
"Here." The guard brought them up on his phone and passed it over as he swiped the security card through. Scott flipped through them.
"Look at those paws. He's going to be a big one."
"Yeah, we wanted something the kids could wrestle."
"Cute." He passed back the phone and walked through the gate, backpack slung over his shoulder. "See you later, man."
It was amazing the information that people willingly gave up online. It hadn't taken them long to map out much of the staff in the public part of the faculty, including Scott Marks, whose vacation lined up with their window, and security guard Wilson Jackson, and his new puppy, brought home just Sunday, after Marks' vacation had started. Kevin tapped his ear as he strode through the halls.
"I'm in." He said quietly over the broadcom, before switching over to his mission specific one. How's progress, Lewis?"
Darcy had dropped a small stack of parcels at the front desk and was currently working her charm on the front desk. "Hey Elizabeth? I know you're supposed to be picky about guest passes, but Cousin Flo's in town and all of my drops this afternoon are outside. Construction sites and similar, y'know? Think I could get a pass to the restroom? Won't take me more than 10 minutes, tops." She gave Elizabeth a small smile, ramping it up to sunny when the pass was handed over and she was buzzed through. "You're an embarrassment saver, thanks! I'll have the next person that drops here bring you a cookie."
She walked down the hall with purpose, stopping to check her shoelaces and tighten them as she passed an open security station. A stumble, and what looked like a wrapped tampon fell out of her hand, leaving her grasping after it and planting the drive in one of the open lower spaces. She stood, looking embarassed, and made her way into the bathroom. "Done," she said into the mission specific band. A few minutes later she was washing her hands and heading back down the hallway, giving Elizabeth the pass and a nod of thanks as she left the building.
"I'm out," she said over the broadcom a few minutes later, making her way down the sidewalk.
"Good." Kevin said into his earpiece, switching forms to that of the security guard who had checked him in. When they'd brushed their hands handling the phone, it had given the shapeshifter everything he needed to copy him exactly. Kevin stopped at a door and pressed his thumb against the biometric reader. It hummed for a moment and clicked over to green, opening it up. He slipped in and made his way along the corridor. Darcy's planted drive should have just slightly modified the external motion sensors to create a narrow path along the fence to the building.
"I'm at the rear door. Bringing down security now." He pressed his thumb into another reader, once again getting an all clear result. He stepped forward to the door. "Just getting the----ARRRGHFUCK!!!" Kevin's harsh scream rang over the comms for a moment. Everyone froze for a second, and he finally came back on.
"I'm fine. It's fine." His voice sounded slurred and mushy. "There's a goddamn EM field on the backdoor not shown on the security plans we stole. Cypher is going to need to take it down as well once Velocidad plants the tap."
"We're really set on that code name? Vaguely racist, not even really accurate?" Gabriel sighed. "Also, you sound like you're having a stroke." He took his earpiece out, not really interested in hearing Kevin's retort. If he were fast enough, the other man would still be chiding him when he was done anyway.
Gabriel enjoyed the simplicity of jobs like these, especially lately: the ones where he could just speed himself up, as he was doing now, and run through a building with abandon. Moving at a speed beyond what was reasonably detectable on camera, he scaled the fence, hopped down and darted through the narrow area that Darcy had cleared for him.
The door that gave him access to the facility had a sign that, in large red letters, read "Emergency Exit Only." Gabriel snorted as he tentatively jiggled the handle; it opened easily, and so he popped in. From there, he clambered up a largely unused stairwell — entirely too many stairs, he'd been skipping out on cardio — to the roof.
"Okay," he said as he fumbled his earpiece back in. "I'm on top." He glanced around, his eyes landing on an electrical panel with cables. "Give me two minutes to tap into the system, and it's all yours."
"I'm in, I'm out, I'm on top? Are we -really- not doing phrasing anymore?" Doug quipped into his mic. Give him two minutes of potentially dead air, and he was absolutely going to start making stupid Archer jokes. Especially if people were going to give him low hanging fruit like that. "All right, I'm reading the tap now," he told Gabe as he began his intrusion into the computer side of the security system. "I'm looking for that EM field you hit, Changeling...what the hell, it's almost like some kind of weaponized degaussing system. I guess that's one way to keep proprietary secrets proprietary, fry everyone's mobile phone if they go through the wrong door." Their comms were shielded against that sort of thing, but still.
"Okay, that's down, and the path in is now obscured from the surveillance." He tapped a few more keys to verify. "Clock is ticking."
There was a long pause before the comms clicked back to life. "Doorsh 'pen. Cannn bck on owe." The mushy voice was almost unrecognizable.
Darcy flicked Doug in the shoulder as she slid into the van. "I'll show you phrasing," she grumped quietly before tapping her earpiece. "I could start calling you zippy instead, but we can fuss about it later. Changeling, you able to get out or you need a hand?"
"I'll check on him on the way out," Gabriel said. He began retrieving his equipment and preparing to step out. "Also, sorry, are you referring to my codename quip from, like seven minutes ago? We work a little faster than that here. Try to keep up." He didn't wait for a response before retracing his steps. "Lotta security here," he added. "EM field on top of everything else?" Three seconds later, he'd appeared in front of Kevin. "This asset must be impressive."
It became immediately clear why Kevin couldn't clear himself from the building. One of his legs was ended with a puddling stump of flesh. The other was bent in six different places. It was as if his flesh had melted like wax, deforming his entire body from the head down. Only one eye was visible and his mouth was obscured with foot long dangling lips. He gestured at Gabe with a hand sporting five entirely different shaped and length fingers going in all directions.
"bishuss wuth drr." He garbled out.
"Not the nicest thing you've ever said to me, but I won't hold it against you." Gabriel had the manners not to shudder or look remotely disgusted. Or maybe he just wasn't squeamish these days. "Look, I'm not strong enough to scoop you up, so just put your arm around me. We'll go slow, and maybe by the time we stumble outta here, your magnetic hangover will be over, and you'll look like your classic postwar self."
Kevin nodded (or at least some bits moved in a possibly affirmative response) and slung a misshapen arm over Gabe's shoulders, bracing against the younger man to try and help propel himself.
The slurring was definitely alarming, and the hints at what the situation entailed from Gabe's perspective over the comms even more so. "Start the van," he told Darcy. "Our window is closing, you guys, can you pick up the pace any?" He cracked the back door on the van in preparation for their return.
Gabriel didn't even hide his exasperation as he and Kevin appeared, rather suddenly, next to the van. "My time is not your time, remember? That's literally the whole deal." Kevin, of course, was still in bad shape. Gabriel threw open the door. "Someone help me help him up, and then let's roll."
"Shit." Darcy blinked a few times, processing, then moved into action to help Gabriel lift Kevin into the van. "One of you drive, I'll... well, our first aid class at the mansion is obviously inadequate, but I can at least try to make sure he's comfortable."
Doug slipped behind the wheel, putting the van in gear and backing it out of the side lot they had stashed it in. "Nothing to see, just backin it up..." he murmured to himself. Once they were on the road, he flicked his eyes to the rearview to check on what was happening. "EM fields can screw up peoples' powers," he told them. "That dingus Arcade likes to use them." He spared a hearty mental 'fuck THAT guy' before continuing. "It should be temporary, usually a matter of hours or days."
