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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Apr 16, 2013 9:11:47 GMT -5
"Montana. The windy state. Or is that Oklahoma? No wait. Chicago is the windy city. Whatever. It's big and open and I'm sure it has lots of wind anyway. Plus, it is where we need to go." Kiki talked to herself as she stared at the map displayed on one of the blade ship's larger display screens. She was alone in the room, absentmindedly playing with an old yo-yo she "found" in someone else's room. Her eyes attentively examined the terrain, automatically plotting a rout to take with her bug fighter.
Alright, so maybe it wasn't technically her bug fighter, but it was the bug fighter she always flew. The one she had begun to think of as her own and didn't like others to use without asking.
The one that was currently broken.
Oh, it would still fly, but it couldn't safely go past half speed without risking blowing up. Which would be a problem if you had to chase down some yeerks. Or worse, were being chased down by some yeerks. And that's why Kiki was examining the map. The part she needed for repairs would be found in the boondocks of Montana.
For some reason the yeerks had set up a sort of bug fighter repair and production area in the middle of the Montana plains, far from any other known yeerk establishments. Probably something to do with the minerals they could mine there, combined with the clear lines of sight for defense.
"We'll need to park far away," Kiki noted. "Probably walk in on foot." She didn't trust them not to be spotted on sensors, even with cloaking technology. Kiki snapped the yo-yo into her hand then punched a couple commands into the computer, sending a copy of the map to her bug fighter. She then turned toward the hall, resuming the up and down motions of her toy.
It was obvious that this mission would require more than one person, but Kiki didn't actually have a second person yet. Namely because she didn't have official permission to pursue this mission. Or unofficial permission for that matter. Which didn't bother Kiki much. In this case she would rather ask for forgiveness than permission because she felt it was pretty likely that their leaders would say it was "too big a risk for too small a gain" or something bogus like that.
The only problem was that she didn't have the authority to send people on missions with her. She was still pretty new and there wasn't anyone that she had a significant amount of seniority over. Well, nobody except for the new guy...
Kiki snapped her yo-yo into her hand again and turned on her heels. The new guy's room was her new destination. Zerk, or whatever his name was, would be her mission buddy. Sure, he was even less experienced than she, but how hard was it to sneak in and pick up a little spaceship part?
Before long Kiki reached to place she was pretty sure was the guy's quarters and knocked. Loudly. "Up and adam, Zerk! We got stuff to do."
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Post by Xerxes on Apr 18, 2013 18:57:03 GMT -5
The room was silent. Though not cramped, the chamber could not be considered spacious by any means. It was only to be expected when one had chosen quarters generally designated for a regular crewman aboard a spaceship. It was spartan, barely looking like a person frequently inhabited the room. The floor was spotless except for a single, black mat in the center of it.
Xerxes sat cross-legged on the mat, focusing on nothing. He disliked spending large amounts of time amongst people and he cherished his moments alone, when he could be free to bask in the utter stillness and solitude offered by his unpopulated area of the crew quarters. As far as he was aware, nobody used any of the other rooms nearby. It gave him plenty of room to think.
But as he ordered his thoughts and relaxed in the bliss of loneliness, noise began to echo up his hallway, heralding the arrival of some disturbance.
With the onset of the knock and announcement, Xerxes smoothly rolled forward and stood up, uncrossing his legs as he did so. He was clad in nothing but his morphing suit, having decided that he needed time to acclimate himself to wearing such things. And now it seemed rather convenient.
He waved his hand in front of a sensor on the door, causing it to open up and reveal a woman in front of him. Taking in her stance, expression, and her tone, Xerxes immediately felt an urge to melt back into his room and deny her existence. He was certain she would only prove to be an annoyance. Yet none of that mattered. He’d chosen to be an Animorph, and if this was a mission, than he would accept it.
“Lead the way,” he said in a bland tone as he stepped into the hallway. He figured she’d take him to wherever they needed to go. And inform him of their objectives, as well. Unless she was entirely incompetent, which Xerxes doubted. Why else would she be put in charge of a mission?
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Apr 18, 2013 22:00:54 GMT -5
"..." Kiki opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out. That had not been the response she had expected. And she certainly hadn't expected him to be dresses for a mission already. She blinked a couple times, inhaled, then turned down the hall and said, "Right. Lets get moving." She began leading the way to the hanger bay.
They didn't make it far, however, before Kiki's thoughts found their way back to her lips. "You know, most people probably would have at least asked what we were doing before saying 'Lead the way.' Even if the answer didn't matter, they would still be curious." Kiki wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it only took her a few more strides to decide. "You know what? I just decided that I like your attitude. Makes things easier." She chose to omit the fact that it was easier because this way she wouldn't have to explain that their mission was off the record.
"But what we are doing," she said as they reached the hangar bay, opened the door and stepped inside, "is stealing a part to fix one of those." She spread an arm toward the bug fighters parked there, then pointed directly at the one she had claimed as her own. "Particularly that one. We need to go to Montana to an enemy shipyard and get the piece we need, and hopefully be back in time for supper."
"Lets head out, shall we?" The moment the words were out of her moth she realized she should have spoke differently, so she amended her words. "I mean, lets head out. Pronto." Kiki marched purposefully toward her broken bug fighter. It would take them almost twice as long to get there, but that still wasn't a very long trip. And no way would she fly another one if she didn't have to.
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Post by Xerxes on Apr 29, 2013 21:08:13 GMT -5
An eyebrow quirked as Xerxes followed behind the girl. Her words and mannerisms already seemed as wild as her hair. She pranced around his simple acknowledgement with flowery bouquets that held no water, before coming to a simple conclusion that had not been necessary. Xerxes didn’t care what she thought of him. He wasn’t there to be popular. And her waste of oxygen irritated him.
But he could live with that.
As their footsteps began to bounce around the expanse of the hangar, the girl finally started spouting words that were worthwhile. Their mission. And it seemed simple enough. A quick in-and-out theft. Leaving none the wiser. Suspiciously so. Did it really take two individuals to do this task? Perhaps. But it seemed more like a test, to see what the new recruit was made of. With that in mind, the whimsical attitude of the girl could be a ruse, there to shroud him in a delusion in which they could calculate his abilities to cope with surprises or dangers. His eyes twitched a bit in what one might mistake for a slight narrowing. He’d play along with this game. If he must be tested, then so be it. But he was not going to be caught off guard.
He continued following her every step of the way like a second shadow. He intended on learning just as much about the girl as she did about him. And--he realized something. Xerxes did not know her name. He could not really keep referring to her as “the girl.” “What is your name?” said Xerxes. Point-blank. Maybe she could appreciate that. She seemed to be somewhat fond of that style of speech anyways, considering her bullet-point layout of the mission. When it came to important things, at least from what he’d seen so far, she was to the point.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on May 24, 2013 21:52:36 GMT -5
"My name?" Kiki asked as she opened the entrance to the bug fighter. "My name is Kiki. Kiki Sanderson." She figured he would have already known her name but couldn't really blame him if he didn't. She barely knew his and had never actually talked to him before. Rarely ever saw him either. She contemplated asking if his name was really Zerk, but then decided that it wouldn't be a very leader-like thing to do. Instead she went to the main control panel and pulled her map of Montana on a side screen.
"This is where our target is. A sort of spaceship manufacturing plant." Kiki pointed to a spot on the map out in the open plains. Then she drug her finger over to another spot a few miles away. "And this is where we will be landing. In this little gully."
Kiki turned back to the main display and started running through the motions of powering up the bug fighter. "Now, since I don't know you very well yet Zerk, let me test out your tactical aptitude. With the given information, how would you go about sneaking into the area unnoticed, and how would you sneak out carrying one of those?" She pointed to the copilot chair where the broken spaceship part was resting. It was about the size and shape of a beet with the leaves still attached, but grey and black with some gold wiring.
Kiki was curious as to what sort of answer this strange guy might come up with. She had some ideas of her own, but wanted to know if he could come up with anything better. And if he did, she could just claim that it was similar to her own plans all along. Either way, Kiki was proud that she was able to come up with her test on the spot. It really would help her to know the type of person who would be watching her back.
"Now lets buckle up and shred some sky." With that she hit a command and the bug fighter dropped out the bottom of the blade ship even as the hangar doors were still opening. She braced her legs against the floor and gave the engines some power, kicking them forward toward the horizon. Their mission was now underway.
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Post by Xerxes on May 29, 2013 22:49:48 GMT -5
Xerxes’ silent gaze followed each movement Kiki made. After she pulled up the target, he began to study the surroundings of the area, as well as the building itself. It didn’t look like much. It seemed like a giant, stone block in the middle of the world’s largest lawn. The gully Kiki had mentioned was a considerable distance away, necessary, he assumed, in order to stay below the radar.
He was interested in how she proposed to accomplish their task with such lack of convenient cover. Which was why her question startled him, as evidenced by the way his head sharply rotated three degrees to his right in order to more easily focus on the female. His eyes narrowed for only the briefest of moments before mentally shrugging away the shock. “Hmmm,” he murmured, acknowledging the challenge. He’d expected a test, but nothing like this. Still, it’s what he’d signed up for. Might as well get it done.
As Kiki started up the Bug Fighter, Xerxes returned his attention to the map of their target. He was about to stand up and approach the map more closely, but he noticed Kiki appearing to push herself into her chair, as if her inane words actually held some literal meaning. Not knowing what to expect but choosing to follow the more experienced Animorph’s example, Xerxes plastered himself into his seat, just in time to avoid being thrown about the shuttle as it began its flight.
The experience was similar to riding a roller coaster, although after the initial drop and application of thrust, the ride evened out to the point of hardly being noticed. His eyebrow quirked in appreciation of the thrill of the event.
Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, Xerxes elevated his hands and touched his fingertips together, forming a triangular shape just in front of his face. He stared at the objective for several seconds, then a minute, then several more minutes before he’d finally formulated a plan that he believed would have a suitable chance of working.
“In order to achieve the objective,” he began, “Assuming, that is, that the building is indeed of Terran design, as suggested by its appearance, then we merely approach the building with the use of flying forms. We gain access through the loading docks or whatever means the Yeerks have of taking the ships out of the factory. The ceilings should be high enough that we can remain undetected if we remain close them. At that point, we should be in the assembly area of the factory, which is where we will be most likely to find out part.”
Xerxes paused and leaned back in his chair, resting his palms on his knees. “Once we’ve located where the part is, we have two options. If you have a flying form that is capable of lifting that device, then you will be ready to do so while I find a discreet location to demorph and then find a fire alarm. You use the distraction to swipe the part and escape. I will rendezvous with you back at the fighter.
“However, if you do not have a morph large enough to carry the part, then we will be forced to demorph discreetly and snatch a worker. Lethal options are most likely to succeed, as knocking a person out is very difficult to do and could result in potentially blowing our cover if the worker recovers too soon. We would only have to worry about getting blood on its uniform, which one of us will take and put on. When that person is ready, they’ll enter the main factory area while the other one activates the fire alarm, just as before. In the confusion that the alarm will hopefully cause, the disguised one will carefully swipe the needed part and make his or her way to a hiding spot outside before hiding the part on their body before morphing and flying away.”
Xerxes finally finished listing his plan. “At least, that is how I would do it if we were trying to be quick. Given a larger timeframe to complete the mission, less riskier, more time-consuming options are available.” Having said his piece, Xerxes fell into silence.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on May 31, 2013 20:27:58 GMT -5
Kiki waited patiently as Xerxes tried to come up with an answer to her question. She was busy checking all the system displays anyway, so the break between her question and his answer was actually beneficial. Kiki had remembered pretty well how to fly a bug fighter from her time as a controller, but she was still a bit rusty after the years she had spent away from spacecraft. Besides, when she had been a controller, it hadn't really been her who had done the flying. She just watched from inside her own body.
But when Xrexes finally did answer, his plan seemed pretty similar to her own. Mostly. Fly in as birds or bugs to start with. Her bird morph wouldn't be able to carry it and it sounded like Xerxes didn't have a flying morph that could either, so they woulds have to get out a different way. Which brought her to the part of Xerxes' plan that differed from her own.
Killing.
It was all she could do to suppress the urge to snap around in her seat and stare at him in disbelief. Even so, Kiki couldn't help but widen her eyes before staring numbly at her display screens. She almost didn't register the rest of his plan as her mind raced, trying to think of all the implications.
"L-let me think on it a bit," was all Kiki said when Xerxes finished. This was looking to be more than she had bargained for.
Sure, Kiki had been in a battle or two, and had probably dished out some life ending injuries (although she never checked in to see if the controllers managed to pull through or not). In fact, she had even threatened her leader Kyle's life before. She held a hair stick to his neck while he was in dog morph in order to hold him hostage, and may or may not have even carried through on her threat had events played out differently. But still, all those times she had threatened lives in order to preserve her own. To her, this... this plan of his felt more like murder. But at the same time it was so logical! Aragh!
They were landing in the gully on the grassy plains of Montana before Kiki finally figured out how to respond. And she still wasn't convinced that she had come up with the correct answer.
"Well, my only bird morph so far is a kingfisher, so we won't be able to carry the part out by air." The last of the power from the ship's engines drained away and Kiki opened a hatch on the side of the ship, letting in a rush of brisk air. "So when we get inside and locate the part, we will have to get it out as humans like you said. But before we decide to mur- Take out a worker, Zerk, we should search for spare work outfits or a changing room. That way there won't be a body for someone to find."
That was the best argument Kiki could come up with against killing and she hoped Xerxes would find it satisfactory. But if not, he would have to. She was still in charge of this mission, so her plan was the one they would follow. "Lets get outside and morph, hmm?" Kiki stripped down to the bicycle shorts and sports bra she used as a morphing suit, then stepped barefoot out onto the sunny morning dew of the Big Sky State.
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Post by Xerxes on Jun 1, 2013 0:46:14 GMT -5
Kiki seemed shocked. Xerxes was not surprised. He was aware that many people were squeamish when it came to killing one another, especially females, in his limited experience, but Kiki deserved what she asked for. Of course it was the allowance of murder that caused her tongue to stumble and her composure to slip--nothing else in his plan was controversial.
Xerxes allowed his focus to settle at some point in the far-off distance and he sank into his thoughts. He was beginning to formulate a doubt about Kiki’s ability to command. It was one thing to prefer to not to kill--that was an acceptable, although more difficult, alternative choice--but to become surprised at the notion of it? Her continued lapse into a silence that mirrored his own seemed to suggest that she was unnerved. That in itself was merely speculation, based only off of the rather large amount of talking he’d heard from her. She did not seem to be the quiet sort.
And a leader who couldn’t stand the very thought of killing another, or who allowed shock to physically disrupt them, could not be very effective. If this was indeed a test, perhaps it was not entirely for him.
His head tilted forward a smidgen, wordlessly filing away the knowledge of her flying form. She was then that much less of an unknown variable. It seemed, though, that his plan was considered mostly viable by Kiki, excepting the lethal action bit. He ran through the alterations she made to the stratagem as he followed her outside of the fighter. Ignoring her rhetorical question, Xerxes strode past her for a stride or two, entirely turning his back to her and her strip-down. As he was already suitable for morphing, he began clearing his mind for focus.
One thing stopped him. “My name is Xerxes,” he stated, clearly enunciating each sound and syllable. Then he pushed everything out of his head but the image of a bat.
Seconds passed, then a minute, then two, then three. His nose and jaw extended and his teeth sharpened. His ears flared out and up even as his fingers extended to impossible lengths before becoming webbed together with skin. Black clothing vanished beneath white skin and fur. His body shrank and contorted until finally, an Australian ghost bat could be found in Montana grass in broad daylight.
Another thirty seconds later, that same bat was found to be clumsily flapping around, struggling to gain altitude in the heat and the light.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Jun 1, 2013 4:25:45 GMT -5
If Xerxes cared about her alterations to the plan, Kiki couldn't tell. He seemed as robotic as ever. Even when he corrected her for the way she she kept getting his name wrong, Kiki could not tell if he was actually upset about her mistake, or if he was just trying to help her be more accurate. Zerk is a tough guy to read, Kiki noted to herself. I mean Xerxes. His name is Xerxes. Meh, I still like Zerk.
She noticed that he had already started morphing, so she hurried to catch up. I really hate this part. Kiki stood a little ways off and turned her head so she wouldn't accidentally see Xerxes mid morph and freak out. In fact, Kiki closed her eyes so she wouldn't even see herself morph. Changing shape really freaked her out for some reason and it was only out of necessity that she was able to muster up the will to do it. If they were here collecting a part for somebody else's bug fighter, she probably would have told them "Good luck. I'll watch from the ship."
Kiki cleared her mind, thinking back to all those years ago when her yeerk had forced her to acquire a bird. Even so, it wasn't long before Kiki felt her bones start to hollow out. Her frizzy hair rubbed against the sides of her face as it shortened into mohawk-like little feathers of the kingfisher. Her legs shortened and her weight shifted, making it difficult to keep he balance with closed eyelid. Even her eyelids felt like they were no longer her own. The crunching and grinding noises that went along with morphing were enough to make her rush the process as much as possible, just so that it would be done and over with.
When it felt like all the changes had finally stopped, Kiki cracked open her eyes. Suddenly the gully looked more like a canyon. The walls would take forever to climb! But luckily for her, climbing wasn't necessary. With a flurry of feathers, Kiki rocketed up the edge of the gully and landed on a leafless shrub at the top. It was exhilarating! In the span of two seconds she had gone from the bottom of the gully to the top, belly almost scraping the ground.
Her head twitched back and forth rapidly. Searching for Xerxes, searching for predators, searching for prey. Back, forth, up, down. This was not her normal habitat. There was water on the ground. Could there be fish? There was a shape in the air. Was it a predator? No, it was a bat. An ugly bat. But was there a cute kind? She would have to check on the ship's computer later. The ship. She was supposed to be getting a part for her ship. Get it together, Girl.
Kiki had only used this morph a couple of times and apparently wasn't used to it yet. The instincts had nearly gotten the better of her. <<Have you had enough time to get used to the morph yet, Mr. Zerk Zees? You'll need to be convincing as a real wild animal if we are going to pull this off.>> Hopefully that would cover for her if he had noticed her slip up. <<I'll have you take point when you are ready and I'll follow you at a distance. Hopefully a white bat will be less noticeable than a blue bird. We can fan out a bit once we are inside.>>
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Post by Xerxes on Jun 1, 2013 10:06:24 GMT -5
There was too much light. It wasn’t right. Xerxes wanted to fly back to his cave and sleep the day away. He began chirping the notes that would ring out amongst his surroundings, revealing the land to him. He needed to find his roost. Prey wasn’t out yet. Not normal. Daylight was unnatural.
In sound-map in his head, he found a roost. Nimbly wheeling around in the sky, Xerxes began to descend, angling towards the cavernous construct in the base of a valley-like structure in the ground. He flew over the edge of the valley and then he could see the target. A rock-like thing that appeared to be the largest insect he’d ever seen. But the shape sounded wrong. It was a cave. That much he knew.
As the bat neared the cave, sounds began fluttering through his brain. Not squeaks, not bats, not prey. Sounds that had no meaning. Sounds that....were his name. Xerxes.
Xerxes pulled back out of his descent and flapped upwards, rapidly putting distance between himself and the bug fighter. He caught the gist of Kiki’s mental voice even as she shook off the cobwebs of the bat’s seductive instincts. What it wanted didn’t matter. Even though it didn’t belong there in any sense of the term, Xerxes had a mission to do, even if he had to suffer under the sun to do it.
<<Acknowledged,>> he responded several moments after one normally would’ve answered. Not that it really mattered that she wanted him to lead their formation. A blue bird was a perfectly normal sight. A bat, no matter how bright, was not.
The ghostly bat spiraled upwards into the sky before locating the factory. It wasn’t that he had incredible, supernatural sight or anything, but on an open plain, distances always seemed much closer than they really were. And with their altitude, miles were nothing. He began flapping his way towards their destination.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Jun 2, 2013 2:07:01 GMT -5
It was more difficult to tag behind Xerxes than Kiki expected. She couldn't stray behind as far as she would have liked without risking losing sight of him. It wasn't that he was particularly difficult to spot, but if he got too far away he was just a white dot among the white clouds unless he crossed a patch of blue. Not that blue was really blue with her bird eyes.
Even though she had been making a point to stay much lower than Xerxes, it still wasn't long before Kiki spotted the factory. Turns out you cover ground quickly when your body isn't tethered to the earth.
The building itself was large and blocky. Enormous doors lined the outside, most of them open. But even the building was dwarfed by the expansive production yard that surrounded it. And there were guard towers constructed sparingly around that. But considering there was a family of pronghorn antelope grazing peacefully at the base of one of them, Kiki wasn't too worried about the dracon cannons mounted on the towers shooting at them. They were probably more worried about humans with tanks or fighter jets trying to break in than animals.
The production yard itself had a lot going on too. Much of it seemed to be filled with mounds of raw materials, and even more of it was bare ground, but there were also ships scattered about which were at varying stages of completion. Many of them were bug fighters, but there was a blade ship or two as well. Then there was a large bowl shaped framework that looked as if it was just being started. It took Kiki a moment to figure out what it was supposed to be.
<<Hey Xerxes, is that... Is that a pool ship they are building? That big bowl thing in the production yard?>> Kiki wasn't sure if she should be concerned about that or not, so she continued to follow Xerxes as they neared the yard.
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Post by Xerxes on Jun 4, 2013 21:33:45 GMT -5
Nevertheless, they made it. They approached undetected, the few visible defense systems never once stirring. In his normal form, Xerxes would have been tempted to quirk an eyebrow in surprise. Now the easy part was over.
Xerxes flew in closer to the building, locating a decent edge to land on. His wings were beginning to ache after the strain of the constant flapping flight and he wished to be out of sight as much as possible. Bats were not supposed to be outside during the day and his presence could potentially blow their cover and render their mission impossible. It would also enable Kiki to resume the lead, as this was her mission.
Her mental voice caused the bat to angle his head towards the construction yard. It was plainly obvious what Kiki was wondering about. <<I do not know,>> he replied evenly. <<I have never seen a pool ship, nor examined the schematics to one. It’s likely though.>> And as tempting as it was to find a way to destroy it, it was not a mission objective. Neither one of them had the equipment necessary for such a task, either. Unless....
<<It would be hardly more effort to adapt the plan to discover the purpose of the vessel. Perhaps there will be an opportunity for sabotage or espionage,>> Xerxes pointed out. His mouth briefly opened, flashing the bat’s sharp teeth. In the back of his mind he toyed with the notion of unleashing a bombing run on the factory. The downfall was that it would most certainly not significantly impede the Yeerks. Se la vie.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Jun 5, 2013 21:33:19 GMT -5
Kiki flitted around as she contemplated the pool ship. Her first reaction was to just get her ship part and get out. Dealing with a pool ship was well above her experience level and pay grade. But something about what Xerxes said reminded her of why she had sought out the animorphs in the first place. To push back.
<<There's gotta be something we can do,>> Kiki determined. <<We should start by locating an office. Someplace that will have information and that we can demorph in.>> But to do that, they would have to actually go inside the building. Kiki did her best to take a deep breath, said, <<Follow my lead,>> then dipped inside the building.
Almost immediately she flapped up toward the ceiling and landed on an enormous I-beam. She half expected to be bombarded with dracon fire the second she crossed the threshold, but nobody seemed to take any notice. In fact, there were even sparrows building nests within the compound. <<They really must not expect Animorphs to be in Montana,>> Kiki muttered.
The building was a huge open expanse, vaguely partitioned into different areas of production. Most of the work seemed to be done by machines, but there were still some people about. And of course, as always was the case in automated factories, there were people busy fixing the machines. But in the center of all the hustle and bustle, there was a block of rooms in the center that reached up to the ceiling. There was a set of walkways and stairways that spiraled all the way up to the top office, which appeared to have a great view of the entire factory. In one corner of the mini tower there was a gravity lift, but it appeared to be down for repairs. Kiki couldn't help but chuckle as a supervisor came out of the main office, shut off the lights, then walked over to the broken lift only to realize she would need to take the stairs.
<<How about you see if you can't... echolocate or whatever, into that top room over there. Seems like a good place for us to start. You any good with computers?>>
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Post by Xerxes on Jun 9, 2013 0:01:56 GMT -5
As Kiki flew about the area, Xerxes focused his rather keen senses on all the other activity. He heard no alarms, neither did he see any signs of a potential threat. As it quickly became evident that Kiki was partial to his vague idea of destruction, Xerxes desired to understand the lay of the land. He noticed that most of the external activity seemed to be focused around the possible pool ships, as if they garnered particular importance or such. The only signs of armed Controllers were located around those sites, and even then there were not many. The combination of the mounted cannons and the secretive nature of their society had seemingly lulled them into a state of a lack of awareness.
Idiots.
Xerxes wordlessly obeyed Kiki’s command to follow her, scuttling to the building’s edge and dropping off behind her. Once he’d broken free of his fall, he swooped inside the factory behind her, immediately rising to the rafters and casting out with his squeaks. The sound waves formed a quick image in his mind of several birds fleeing from his presence. It appeared that some creatures had actually detected their presence. It almost would’ve made his human form smile.
Upon Kiki’s urging, he set about to target the top floor with his sonar. The map in his mind shifted from birds to a solid block rising from the floor and touching the ceiling. Until his map was complete, he forsook answering her. But once he did, neither answer was as positive as he had hoped.
<<I cannot echolocate into the room. It seems to be sealed off, at least from me. Possibly soundproofed. And regrettably I am not overly skilled with computers,>> he blankly reported. With an absence of anything to do, Xerxes came to light on one of the rafters, allowing the bat to direct their landing, clinging upside down from a beam.
From this vantage point, no longer being blocked by the various shoots of metal along the upper space of the ceiling, he had a direct line of sight to another door in the upper room. <<However, it appears that someone is walking out of it. Perhaps this is a chance to enter.>> Perfectly normal tone. He might as well have been remarking on the colors of the wall, if he were ever the type of person to do such a simple-minded thing.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Jun 10, 2013 7:49:24 GMT -5
No computer expert and no obvious way into the room. This was not looking to be their lucky day. Kiki was about to call off their side mission when Xerxes said someone was walking out of a room on the top floor. Kiki quickly glanced to the office door, but it was still dark and motionless. She shifted her position on the I-beam and her new view revealed the other person.
<<Go, go, go!>> She didn't waste time waiting for the door to close. Or even waste her time checking to see if Xerxes was going too. Kiki stayed near the ceiling as she pumped her wings as hard as she could, then at the last second dipped down along the wall. Luckily kingfishers were good at pinpoint dives in order to catch fish, so she managed to slip in between the crack of the door and the wall just before it was cut off.
Immediately Kiki pulled up to avoid crashing into the shiny white floor. But as she pulled up she realized there was a wall just in front of her, and now a sink above her. A quick bank to the left in order to kill some more speed landed her unceremoniously in a urinal.
<<Ouch.>> Kiki righted herself, hopped up to the lip of the urinal, and ruffled her feathers. <<Not to mention gross. Xerxes, you in here? I'm going to demorph.>> She figured it was safe considering nobody opened the door again right away. Hopping to the floor, Kiki began concentrating on her human self, careful not to look at any mirrors as the changes began.
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