Chapter Three, A :: The Risk Involved

[ST]

Team:

Hadrian
Gemma
Rayden
Blaze
Zacke

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This thread starts with them just entering the mainframe room. It is a pretty massive space compared to the hallways and corridors throughout the rest of the compound, which are average to small-ish.

The room is about 50x50 feet, with a multitude of different control panels and systems covering the wall space all around. Some screens are huge and some are very small. There are also island computer units in the center of the room, huge processors crowd the area, creating a very circular path within the square-ish room. There is more technical equipment here than probably any member of the team has seen in their entire lives, with the exception of maybe Hadrian. The floor is tiled in marble and the walls are pristine white. The whole space if very well lit by long fluorescent tubes hanging from the ceiling (which is about 25ft high, btw, so you can totally have your character jump up and ninja-climb on the lights! XD maybe blend into some imaginary shadows? strip? cry?)

There are no DotNA operatives within the room.

Hady... You're up, buddy.

[Zacke]

Zacke moved into the room gripping both handles of Seraphim apprehensively, his eyes carefully skimming the parameters of the room for any sign of human life. He frowned slightly, realizing he and his teammates were the only living beings in this computer mecha.

Kind of weird. Why would DotNA leave their central system mainframe completely unguarded? He decided to dismissed the puzzling thought, though, turning his attention instead to Hadrian.

"Got any idea which one you're even supposed to use?" he asked casually.

[waterlily43]

(YOU MADE ME LAUGH OUT LOUD AT WORK IN FRONT OF CUSTOMERS! BAD LEX BAD! XD)

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Rayden didn't really have his mind on being bodyguard for Hadrian. He was worried. It had only hit upon him that this underground place was terribly confining when he entered it. Was Stella going to be alright? He started reaching for the cellphone, but stopped, realising that none of the people on Stella's team had a cellphone. He looked at Zacke. The only way to contact their team was through the headpiece, but the Headmaster had emphasised not to use any of the communication devices unless in cases of emergency. Oh to him this took as much precedence as anything else but he was being biased. It would not be looked favorably upon by the authorities, especially if it caused them to be detected by Dotna.

He had to forcibly convince himself that Stella was a competent SeeD by her own right, and it was simply no use worrying about her here. She appeared normal earlier when he took one last look at her but that was then, and she wasn't the kind of girl who would easily display anything that would indicate weakness. This he had known even through their short time together.

The sound of Zacke's voice brought his thoughts back to the room they had locked themselves in. He didn't like it. It was filled with machines, which he knew diddly-squat about. The only use he could be around here was to be bodyguard, or in less pleasant terms, bullet-deflector for the red-head dude who was effectively the centrepiece of the whole operation. Of course, the other two teams had their stuff to do but the information that they were about to siphon off Dotna's mainframe was probably the most valued thing in the mission.

Rayden smirked at Zacke's quetion.

"If he doesn't know, then we're all in deep shit. Please don't make us all have a heart attack and say no, Mr. Hacker Dude."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Wow, all this activity XD Awesome postage, STs!!
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Facing one of the terminals, Hadrian leaned on the edge of the frame in attempt to concentrate. He had never seen such great amounts of up-to-date processors face to face in 17 years. The last time he'd seen such a thing was when he snuck in his parents' ridiculous lab at Esthar. That was probably around the time he fell in love with computers. This was bad. Really bad. There were so many gadgetries around him, he was withholding himself from taking them all apart and extracting their microchips one by one. What happened to his purpose? Was he still thinking of the mission?

/Warning. Direct Tampering of the devices you see in your field of vision will potentially activate its entire defense mechanism resulting in the jeopardy of your mission and your teammates./ CQ reminded him. /I will advice you to behave yourself./

"If he doesn't know, then we're all in deep shit. Please don't make us all have a heart attack and say no, Mr. Hacker Dude." He heard Rayden behind him.

Hadrian grinned, keeping his eyes glued on the island of computers in the center of the room. "Don't worry, I got it all under control." He lied--partly. "So just....chill."

Distraction, distraction. Tch...Gotta focus.

"Gemma." He turned to her. "Hold off the bugging till I get through the security system." The hacker dragged his bag to the center of the room and took out several equipments---laptop, a goggle, gloves, a miniature satellite and wires.

He hooked a wire to his gloves and connected it to the laptop. Putting on the goggles, he set the satellite beside him. There. He was supposed to be all set, but he suddenly got this weird feeling that everything seemed to be going too smoothly here. Was he missing something?

"On second thought, you guys," Hadrian pulled his goggles over his head and looked back at his teammates. They were standing guard behind him. "No, I don't have things under control." He smiled. "But I will if..." He looked at the stuffs that was left on the inside of his bag. He was one short of spare sensors. "Three of you can give me a hand."

There was no way this big lump of terminal paradise wouldn't put up a fight now that it came to this. He was better off recklessly safe than sorry.

"You all can type fast, right?" he asked.

[waterlily43]

(Haha sorry this is short but I'm rushing for work.)

Rayden raised an eyebrow at Hadrian and backed away.

"Count me out. You're talking to a technophobe here."

[Blaze Sanaku]

This was quite possibly the most boring mission ever. They had already gotten to the mainframe and nobody had gotten kidnapped, nobody died, nobody had lost their weapon, and nobody was having a miscarriage. Things had gone almost too smoothly.

Blaze picked at a dangling thread in her shirt and then scratched at a scab as she waited for Hadrian to do his work. Next she figured she would play with the split ends in her hair or chew on her nails. Anything to pass the time as Hadrian's bodyguard.

Her ears perked up when Hadrian asked for three people to help him.

"FINALLY, something to do- I'll do it. I can type fast." Blaze said.

[Gemma Ridean]

"Ok wait." Gemma announced, slamming her duffle bag on a glassy tabletop besides the central control panel at Hadrian's command. "Before you begin your work and all that, shouldn't the rest of us figure out how to secure ourselves in?"

Getting in here was way too easy...

"Because honestly, it doesn't sit too well with me that we "broke" into this room without encountering a single Dotna guard. Something isn't right...."

This was frustrating. Why did the rest of them not seem as concerned as her about this?

She shook her head. "Squall mentioned four entrances. There has to be a way for you to get this done without engaging three of us."

She suddenly stalked towards the door they had just entered. This was a huge risk. She knew that. But she wanted to prove a point. Pressing the full weight of her tiny frame against the steel metal shaft bolt, the iron wall flung open. An eery silence greeted their ears for a brief few seconds. Before the door slammed shut, Gemma caught it and guided it slowly to its resting position without a single creak.

She brushed some loose strands of hair out of her face.

"Well..?" she asked hesitantly.

[Zacke]

Zacke stared back at Gemma with a slight frown.

I don't get it.

Iris gave a loud groaning sigh.

/She's making a point. No one noticed you guys come in. No one is here. No one seems to have even heard her open and close that door. A little odd, don't you think?/

Ohhh.

Hmm.

"I guess it's kind of weird that we haven't met with any resistance yet," he admitted. "But to be honest, I think we've just been kind of lucky. Hadrian disabling the security alarms and tripping locks on all the doors in this place has probably slowed them down a lot. I mean not only are they not able to move around very well, but they can't really communicate amongst each other, either. It's only been a few minutes since we came in, I bet they're still a little confused. It's a matter of time before they hunt us down."

He turned to Hadrian. "Speaking of that, before you do anything else you should probably lock all the entrances to this room. You know, so they can't bust in on us and stuff."

With that said, he somewhat reluctantly moved closer to where Hadrian and Blaze were and shot the hacker a skeptical look. "I can type at a decent speed, but I have no clue how to even operate these systems. They aren't regular computers. I might just end up getting in your way here. But I guess if you think you'll really need the help, I can try." He shrugged. "What are you planning?"

[Hadrian D'arcell]

They were a little cooperative today--except maybe for Gemma who was a bit skeptic. Nevertheless, this was good. It saved Hadrian the hassle.

"Appreciate the help." He grinned and tossed two sensors to Blaze and Zacke. "You might or might not have to input something in it---depending on how messed up the mainframe's security system is." He scooted the mini-satellite in between them and switched it on. "Transducer. Ignore it for now."

And then... He stared at the set-up. He got the laptop connected to his gears. Establishing a direct link would be stupid so he would break through the firewall by identifying and mimicking its binary frequency via antenna. Once mimicry was complete, he should be able to get through and copy as much files as he wants online, secure the whole room and all that jazz. It was just that...

"Aight here's the gist." Hadrian looked at Blaze and Zacke. "I want you three to "guard" me online in case the motherboard detects something." He wanted as many online barricades as possible but his spares only went up to three.

Hadrian went over to Zacke's sensor and fiddled with its keypad. "Here. I programmed it to sense and bar any suspicious software through jamming for I dunno how long." He went over to Blaze to do the same thing. "You gotta input a 10-letter password--" He paused. "---or anything 10-letter that you're sure you WILL remember and won't have any problem typing in. Then touch enter. That should set it." Hadrian pointed to the miniature satellite in the midst of them. "See that thing? It should blink insanely if we triggered something and from there, you're gonna have to type your password as fast as you can. Using one hand, or your two thumbs, doesn't matter."

"If the screen doesn't black out--kudos--you made it, if not, that means you sucked and it would shut off more sensors until it gets to me." Hadrian walked over to his bag to get one more sensor. "Once it comes to that, that means we have less than 10 seconds to split this room or we're dead, including the laptop," he explained casually. "But don't worry, maybe we won't go through all that trouble if we're lucky." He turned to them and smiled. The smile was so bright it almost seemed sarcastic.

"Hi Gemma," Hadrian called. "We're doing this online barricades because I'm being paranoid like you. I dunno if they were able to sense us the moment we stepped foot here already or we just really rocked that much. But I'll know what's up if I can get through the main system. It's all downhill from there." He waved the sensor to her. "You were listening, weren't you? Here. Take it. You have to be my barricade #3." He reached it out for her to take.

Hadrian checked how much time he wasted through all that yakking. "Besides, if soldiers manage to get in, Rayden'll take care of it for us," he proudly announced and looked at the guy. "We're cool as long as the motherboard doesn't catch us. Any 5-second question before we move on?"



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Ah, the sensor looks something like this. So sorry, this is the closest one I can find, but it's more like thinner and more artsy. The keypads are actually a touchpad, so picture the screen with alphabet keys lol



And the "mini-satellite" he was talking about is something like this. It's small, about the size of a knuckle.



The one to blink red during emergency would be the one in the center of the dish Oh, and almighty ST, if you want to list any file that Hadrian can't hack through or any security system at all, I leave the outcome of their little plan to you. ^_^ I don't want to control the story.

[Gemma Ridean]

Gemma swore she could detect some sarcasm in Hadrian's tone when he addressed her, but nonetheless, she reached out and grabbed the sensor from him. Was she really acting that paranoid as everyone else seemed to think? She was simply being "thorough"...it was secondhand nature for her...but paranoid...now that was an extreme word. But seeing that she was overruled amongst the five of them, she had no other choice but to comply. In any case, she was more than happy to participate -- one more piece of the mission that was within her control.

"Besides, if soldiers manage to get in, Rayden'll take care of it for us. We're cool as long as the motherboard doesn't catch us. Any 5-second question before we move on?"

Gemma shook her head. "None from me. But if everyone would just stand still for one moment..."

She swiftly casted Haste four times. Finally ending with herself, she instantly felt the familiar, tingling sensation of adrenaline pumping through her veins. She clapped her hands, her fingers intertwining in wispy movements.

She grinned. "That thing should make things a bit easier for us."

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze stared at the thingy Hadrian had given her.

A password.. hmm... a password I'll remember... Aha!

She typed it in slowly to make sure all the letters were correct:

T3rry1sGay

Poor guy, he was dead and Blaze was still heckling him. She couldn't resist letting loose a snicker. Glancing up, she noticed that Zacke and Gemma weren't done with their passwords yet.

"Hurry up!" Blaze barked at them, "We have to finish our mission before anyone else does!"

It was always a race that she refused to lose. Anytime the team was split up, Blaze made it her personal goal that her team would be done first, or she felt humiliated and angry.

[Gemma Ridean]

Gemma raised en eyebrow. Blaze's...high-spirited..nature was something quite awesome to behold. But the clock was ticking with not a single second to spare. Quickly, she punched in her 10-letter password into the sensor's touchscreen keypad.

/Casus belli? Rather heavy, don't you think?\

Gemma smiled knowingly. She couldn't help that the phrase was so fitting for a such a time like now.

As soon as her finger tapped the final letter, the screen lit up a brilliant fluorescent green.

If the screen doesn't black out -- kudos -- you made it.

She held up her sensor.

"I'm in."

[Zacke]

Zacke raised an eyebrow at the technology in his hand. It was kind of cool. He glanced at Hadrian, oddly experiencing some kind of newfound respect for the guy. He was an ass, sure, but at least he knew what he was doing.

He looked back down at his keypad.

Ten letters...

He smiled as he typed in his password...

no1hotdude

An exasperated groan from Iris encouraged his smile into a grin. The grin faded from his face just a moment later, though, when Blaze barked at them to hurry up. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at her reason for being impatient. We have to finish before 'them?' He gave her a look that said 'Give me a break.' But even if he tried to act annoyed about it, he wasn't really. Part of him liked her competitive nature. After all, he always wound up on her team, and being teamed with Blaze would usually lead to a win of some kind. Who wouldn't like winning?

Anyway, whether she was impatient for the right reasons or not, she had a good point. He cleared his throat in a serious manner and looked over at Hadrian.

"I'm in, too."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

KAHSAHAHAH XD THEIR PASSWORDS XDDDD Ahhh, and omg Myacu >__< Sorry if Hadrian always sounds like a jerk to Gemma. LOL He honestly thinks he's being really nice to her. *smacks his dense head*
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Hadrian flippantly grinned. "Sweet." It was easier to move too, thanks to Gemma's spell. He put on the gloves.

"So we're set. Here's a lil review." He pointed to Blaze. "You're my barricade # 1." Then to Zacke. "Barricade #2." And then to Gemma. "#3! Input the password in that order only. Not at the same time. One by one. Got it?" He crossed his arms. "We only set up the barricade if the system already detects us. The satellite will tell you once it blinks. Even if you managed to put up a barricade, you'll be able to tell if the system got through you once your sensor stops working." He scratched his cheek trying to think of more things to say.

"Got all that down? Don't mess up." He sat on the ground and crossed his legs, pulling the laptop beside him. "Rayden best buuud!" he drawled. "We'll leave our backs to ya." He pulled the goggles over his eyes and turned his back from the group.

/Pulling ethernet system online...1%....60%....100%...Complete./ CQ started. /Initiating Binary Mimicry Drive starting from 10 hertz and counting..../

Once this is over... Hadrian opened his eyes to see a transparent virtual reality filled with hundreds of different island networks from different online sources. Be sure to compliment me. The hacking would start here.


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Ahh ST Lex *\^______^ Whether or not the mainframe will give them a hard time or not, you decide.

[ST]

^{Haha thanks Ri XD Hadrian reminds me of Ed from Cowboy Bebop with his goggles! LOL}

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Immediately upon entering the mainframe network, Hadrian is able to sense another user presence. Whoever else is logged in to the network is not logged in via the mainframe room. It is a remote connection.

The person doesn't try to sever Hadrian's connection; the person doesn't even try to effect Hadrian's ability to acquire and view information. Maybe he doesn't detect Hadrian?

The person's IP address is available to Hadrian, so he might be able to detect whether or not the remote connection is taking place somewhere else within the compound. It should be noted, however, that taking this step might also reveal Hadrian's presence to this person.