A single beam ripped through both Ammpe and Brighte. Nasty piece of work that, but Steam had to smile; such beautiful efficiency. Friend computer was certainly wise in his decision to clean up the inefficency within the team. In Steam's mind there was no room for slow reactions or breachs in protocol; the happiness of every citizen of Alpha strike could be at stake, such qualities were unacceptable. Hopefully the replacements did not share the faults of the originals.


As for the others...

Blowz had smashed upon the control consol quite thoroughly and with complete disregard for the ways to the computer. Ideally the consol was intact, but with the defense cannon active it was not possible for inspection. Still, something about the clone was not sitting right with him.

Artie appeared to have snapped to some sort of sense. Hopefully that meant efficiency would improve futher.

Slipp on the other hand almost seemed to withdrawl within himself, for once not jumping to an immediate first opinion. It was good that the clone stood in awe of Friend Computer.

Assessing the situation, Steam withdrew his notepad and pen and began joting down notes regarding their location...

"I shall make details of this event. We must inform our superiors of the active defense cannon as soon as able. It could cause further losses if left unattended."

Perhaps, Steam theorized, if time permitted, he could jot down his concerns regarding his companions as well.

"Short notes." Artie said suddenly, looking at Steam, "Give to Blowz for compilation when done. He will give to me for review and hand in. Equipment is not Communications."

No point for the Equipment officer to try to be detailed when there was no analysis of the equipment possible. Still, if he volunteered himself for the job, he would be expected to uphold it.

Divide and conquer algorithm. Divide the tasks among the processors available, allowing all processors to be utilized to their full extent. It was basic synth logic. Parallelism was good. Sequentialism was bad.

"Short notes." Artie said suddenly, looking at Steam, "Give to Blowz for compilation when done. He will give to me for review and hand in. Equipment is not Communications."

Orders?
Pausing a moment to nod in understanding to Artie, Steam flushed any doubts of the team leader's words from his mind. They were orders! How invigorating! Though the final statement was grating. The situation required, at its basics, equipment analysis.

It seemed Friend Computer's message had truely awakened the clone. Perhaps too awake for Steam's initial plan; he'd record his suspicions later.

As decisive as he could Steam jotted down the basic details of the incident.

Subject: Acitve defense cannon.
Clearance: Yellow
Location: Sector SWR entrance
Concerns: Possible damage to control console
Possible tampering by traitors.
Console requires examination.

...Possible damage to control console.
Blowz should certainly understand his actions could have compromised the analysis. Reactions would be noted.

Happy with his notations, Steam handed the page to Blowz for compilation.... but internally dreaded the r's to come.

The Computer continues with its efficiency as Brighte-R-NNU-2 and Amppe-R-AGE-2 are activated, force-marched into secret corridors, and sent on their way. Less than ten minutes after the "stand by" notice is given, a previously undetected door opens in a side wall, and the replacement clones step out, glancing nervously over their shoulders at their Vulture Squad escorts. The hidden door slides back into place, and once again, SWR sector is empty save Team MAO-17859 Dot R-2.

A glance at your surroundings reveals a very dimly lit maze of corridors and pipes. Every junction is labelled numerically - but the labels appear to not be in any particular order. To confound things even more, quite a few of the numbered junctions contain letters and/or odd symbols mixed in with the numbers, which seem to only confuse the issue further.

A few momets after the replacement clones arrive, the blast door that seperated the team from the defense turret also slides shut - pitching you into darkness.

Sadly, no one is carrying a flashlight; surely, these will be distributed among the standard mission gear (which you have yet to receive). Ah, the fun of life in Alpha Complex...

Brighte walks around, feeling for something different, to pull or push. Everything so dark and black, and Brighte not being able to see anything, made it a real challenge to travel around, feeling she might stumble over something. She slowly felt around til' she found a corridor, and yelled to anyone who felt like listening,"I'm over here!"

Artie blinked as the group was plunged in darkness. The emotional side of him thought this was getting freaky. On the other hand, the logical side of him took the emotional side of him, and punched it in the face to establish superiority. Now was not the time for emotional theatrics. If there was ever a time for emotional theatrics, it'd be at a time after anything else mattered. Which was never.

"Mission objective: reach Section 168." Artie said aloud, as though there wasn't even anything wrong or changed, "Current objective: restore light/power for wayfinding."

"Blowz: With me on the current path. Help direct the others. Rest: split up, each take a different junction. Cover ground. Locate target sector or sabotage or generator switch. Report back immediately if anything is found. Travel until dead end or 60 paces. Whichever comes first. Then try different junction."

"Clear?" Artie asked, looking around at the dim silhouettes around him, before suddenly falling over, landing with a thud on the ground.

"I am undamaged." He muttered grumpily, leaning back against the wall as he stood back up.

Understood. Slipp had a plan. He darted off down the hallway to explore. Maybe some commie germs got into the lights.

Blowz took the notes from Steam. While the Communications officer was likely making a comment in which he butchered his words (which Steam found disorderly; perhaps shoving that stupid hat in his mouth would fix Blowz speech problem), Steam's attention was drawn to a sudden 'whoosh' as a wall panel.

Without further thought he then quickly adverted his eyes as the replacement clones emerged; it was not his place to know where they came from, yet.

Shortly thereafter the panel whooshed closed, with no visible trace of its existence. This was in turn followed by the door behind them closing, and pitching them into darkness. Without their equipment loadout, which they were enroute to receive, they had no means for light. Steam came to an enjoyable conclusion; Another test from the Computer, to prove their worth!

"Mission objective: reach Section 168." Artie said aloud, as though there wasn't even anything wrong or changed, "Current objective: restore light/power for wayfinding."

"Blowz: With me on the current path. Help direct the others. Rest: split up, each take a different junction. Cover ground. Locate target sector or sabotage or generator switch. Report back immediately if anything is found. Travel until dead end or 60 paces. Whichever comes first. Then try different junction."

"Acknowledged," Nodding was meaningless here.

Steam reaches out to find the right wall, the uses it to guide him to a junction where he will round the corner following the wall.

Blowz watched as the panels opened and replacements came out. Serves them for being inefficient at their jobs. Soon though, the panel that led them to the prior room closed, and then darkness.

The entire room was black, and with the quick glimpse of the corridors and pipes they had before it wasn't just going to be a quick walk down the right path.

Quickly though, team leader had given them orders and he followed Artie down.

" Understood, team leader. Everryone! The only way we can communicate is thrrough voice, so make sure you're within earshot. Communicating is key here!"

He then followed Artie, keeping an ear out for anyone who needs help or has questions. He leaned forward as they were going down through the dark hall.

"Team leaderr, I suggest we make some sort of small talk to make surre we don't get lost. Glorrious frriend computer put us here, this test we shall pass with grreat efficiency. At the end though, do you think it would be robots who made this dark? Or maybe some infrareds messing up their job?"

"Unknown." Artie replied, "No information to narrow scope of possibility. Sabotage. Malfunction. Planned test. All are possible."

Logically speaking, there was little point as to conjecture, and even computers had to wait on futureints for computation. Artie waited by the side of the primary hallway, leaning against the wall in between the junctions that he had supposed that the others had gone down.

Ammpe absently put her hand on the wall, in the middle of thinking about how thankful she was that the Computer cared about her enough to show her the error of her ways. She would not fail the Computer again. It was unacceptable.

She snapped back to attention and tried to peer into the darkness as she made her way along, feeling along the walls, sniffing for sparks. Maybe the Commies had cut power to this area and she could find the leaking current.

She was worried about what her teammates would do in the dark. She listened very hard to make sure they weren't making any treasonous noises. "We should be grateful to the Computer for giving us walls to keep a hold of as we walk." She informed the others. What if they didn't have clearance to be messing with the lights in this area? If she could see to write notes she would be making note of that.

Brighte heard what Artie had told the group,"Acknowledged", she answered back, feeling that someone should of answered her or came following her voice by now, since the last thing she said was the first thing she did when she came back.
"Inefficient ears I guess...", she muttered to herself as she knows no one is coming to follow her after the team leader gave an order. She decides to follow that order, and began moving down the path she found.

Once your eyes adjust, the sector proves to not be completely dark, thanks to some very soft (and poorly maintained) red emergency lights recessed in odd intervals - but it is merely a step above that. It is the sort of darkness that allows one to see a bare suggestion one's hand in front of one's face - but little more.

The team follow's Artie's orders, fanning out into roughly a star shape. The going is painfully slow, and more than once, clones find themselves walking into walls, pipes, and puddles with essentially no warning. It is entirely possible that section 168 has been missed, since the emergency lights are so erratically (and oddly) spaced; many of the numbering plates are all but invisible.

At one point, Artie notices a faint light down the corridor that Slipp has taken. It appears similar to that of a candle, and the big team leader moves to investigate... but thinks better of the inefficiency. Instead, he simply makes a note that the hygeine officer apparently did have some sort of light source that he chose to not share with the team.

The light source does prove to be valuable, however; after long searching, Slipp calls back that he has found the signplate for section 168.

The sign points down, indicating a steel ladder that leads to a sublevel of SWR sector. An unpleasant smell facts strongly from the lower level.

Moving down the ladder, the team finds themselves in a small tunnel - the ceiling is only about five feet high, the corridor is very narrow (only one person at a time can fit), and the floor of the tunnel is covered by approximately half a foot of dark liquid. The unpleasant scent is much stronger here. The lights, if anything, are even dimmer here.

The tunnel extends in exactly one direction.

"Found it!" Slipp yelled out. Too bad his match was almost out.

As the others were coming, Slipp looked furiously for something flammable to keep the light. Hoping to find something, he quickly hurried to get more light before his companions arrived.

Maybe that stuff on the floor is flammable? Maybe the gas will blow them all up? Maybe he should just put the match out before anyone gets hurt (chemical engineering...?)

(OOC: I realize this doesn't go to the end of the last post. More to come after a quick check)

The objective area was located, and so, all that remained was to gather and move forward.

"Blowz, relay message for rendevouz, here asap, except Slipp. Once gathered, we move to him."

With that done, all that was left to do was wait.

~~~ *after group assembles and gets to the entrance*

"Good work Slipp," Artie nodded to the officer, before looking down the tunnel.

The passageway was not the most pleasent to say the least. Still, the Computer had to know what was happening, so, all that needed doing was moving forward.

"Brighte, take point. Steam, second. Slipp. Blowz. Me. Ammpe."

(Apologies on lateness. I make no excuses. Excuses is treason. Last part may be edited accordingly depending on what happens re: Slipp's match light )