piper90 | New Mission

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carolina

New Mission

[After a night weathering a Stuff storm, the rig has stopped, the way it has before when there's a mission. But it's different this time. Now that the Stuff rains have slowed and stopped, there are sounds of violence outside. Shouts. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire.]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm afraid I come to you under dire circumstances. Due to topographical limitations, the rig has been forced through one area in the valley.

Unfortunately, this area is inhabited by a small village. These people don't understand the importance of the rig, it's very necessity for humanity. We need your help with evacuation, especially since it might be more...forceful than usual.

These people can be given much safer shelter in the Livable Zone and we need you to keep that in mind if evacuation resorts to violence. You are being ordered to subdue any resistance, keeping in mind that while this confrontation may not be ideal, they will be brought to safer areas to live.

It's for their own good, you see.

Which means that if there are any New Hires that refuse to follow orders, discipline will unfortunately be necessary.

[He actually looks vaguely uncomfortable at that.]

You'll be receiving your orders shortly. Please standby.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So, how many of them is the company preparing to shoot if they don't comply?

[ Carolina is ice fucking cold. ]

You know, considering I'm sure you haven't had time to surgically implant lethal shock collars in all of them.

[Discomfort.]

We...would prefer nonfatal captures, if at all possible. You all will be equipped with less than lethal rounds and combat equipment.

But if you need to defend yourselves with fatal force, we will permit that level of force.

While we're being granted use of lethal force, how many of us are considered acceptable losses to "discipline?"

[ She looks straight into the camera, so her image's stare skewers right into Dickwash. Fucking squirm, asshole. ]

Edited (Timing notes lol) 2021-08-24 06:42 (UTC)

[Washburn actually unbuttons the top button of his collar, like he feels that he can't breathe.]

That depends, of course, on whether or not you commit serious crimes, like murder. I'm sure we can find non-fatal forms of discipline for simple disobedience.

[But he doesn't sound so sure.]

Edited 2021-08-24 06:48 (UTC)

How serious of a crime is stopping this rig? It's such an important rig. It's so necessary for humanity.

[ She's calm, but there's increasing venom in every word. ]

It's serious enough for mandatory relocation and use of lethal force, after all. I think it's pretty clear where the company stands on this. It's pretty clear how the company has always stood on this.

[ She echoes his own words back at him: ]

No more games, Mr. Washburn. No more pretense.

[ You're here, fucker. You're in this. There's no way out of facing what you're doing as part of this. ]

I - I...

[Nope, she's got him.]

I have a daughter in the Livable Zone. If the rig fails, the nightmare seeps in.

[There is vestigial humanity in some bureacrats. Only some.]

You don't know what it was like, during the war. Whole sections of buildings carved out of reality. My wife... half of my wife was -

And the nightmares in the fog after, sometimes with human voices -

[There was a whole lot of suffering, and very few therapists. Some were monsters before the war. Some were broken by it.]

The rig is essential, you see. I know you can't see that at a time like this.

[A long pause, and the mask is back up, but what is it masking right now?]

But I do understand why you find your current conditions so hostile. Perhaps we should relocate this conversation to something in person. In an hour, perhaps? We can discuss how to help you proceed, going forward.

Edited 2021-08-24 07:19 (UTC)

[ Got you. ]

[ This wasn't calculated, not at first. Carolina was just gunning to hurt him, to pour out her anger and months of built up powerlessness on this spineless pencilneck, the most reachable target. ]

[ But then things started moving, and here she's found some kind of crack, just wide enough to squeeze into. No idea what's on the other side. She has to make a call. ]

One hour then. We'll talk.

[ Carolina has taken a long time to come to know who she is, and to rebuild that person into someone she wants to be. And that someone can give no other answer. ]

[When the time comes, he gives her a location.]

[Curiously, it's not some very obvious location like a conference room.]

[He chooses the library, which is un-monitored, given that K the librarian has spoken to them from it..]

Edited 2021-08-24 07:55 (UTC)

[ After some less deliberation, more notice giving, Carolina arrives. There's a solid chance she's about to be attacked, but... there's an equally solid chance she's not. ]

[ It's dangerous to attempt to answer this in good faith, but Carolina has: She has come alone, and unarmed. ]

[He looks different when she gets there. Something has clearly happened in that hour. He's sweaty like he spent some time running. He's slightly out of breath. He looks disheveled. His clothes are covered in dust and...is that some soot?]

[It looks like he's been Up To Something.]

[His voice almost sounds the same. There's that buttoned up calm. But there is something there underneath that makes it tremble slightly.]

[He has the shock collar clicker in hand, as if he expects some violence. But that hand is shaking.]

K has helpfully opted to give us some privacy. The library has suffered from issues with the security cameras.

[Curious that he'd choose that room then.]

They...don't always tell me things. They tell me what to say...

I've received training. On the professionalism they expect, even under circumstances that are...uncomfortable.

And the rig is essential, you see. Essential.

[He keeps saying that.]

My daughter lives with her grandmother closer to the pipeline border. Closer than I'd like but my mother refuses to move and she's... well she's good with a shotgun. I trust her more than anyone with Kiara.

Edited 2021-08-27 18:41 (UTC)

[ Carolina doesn't know what she expected, but this seems to be falling soundly into "not an ambush" territory. She'll take it. She'll also eye the clicker with steady wariness, but it doesn't make her shift. That was expected, regardless. ]

I'm sorry about your wife.

[ And she actually is. Her own father was destroyed by such a loss. At least he still seems to care for his surviving family, which is more than Carolina could say for Leonard Church. ]

I don't know how much you know about me, Washburn, but let me tell you something important that took me a very long time to learn.

[ No combativeness. Her temper has had some time to cool, and more context is pouring in. She's starting to think she might understand. ]

The people who matter in your life, really matter, do not want you to be a disposable monster for them.

[He's quiet, as he processes the sympathy.]

[For just a moment - a moment - his eyes have the stricken look of someone who would rather die than have his daughter find out what part he's played in the treatment of the Easter Bunny.]

If Jorgmund had given you a choice, would you have helped us? To finish the pipeline? Or find another way to keep the Livable Zone safe?

Not all of you, just...you.

[He knows she can't speak for the whole group.]

Edited 2021-08-28 06:03 (UTC)

I... Yes?

[ She seems a little surprised to be asked. Carolina's arms are folded, but her fingers loosen. ]

Probably. I won't lie to you: being here in the first place instead of home is not my favorite, but if I was going to be here anyway...

[ She shakes her head. ]

I didn't need to be shock collared like an attack dog to get me to help protect innocent people. I try to just do that now.

And I think there has to be a way to do that without turning all of us into this.

[ Her posture loosens up. Carolina gestures with one arm between the two of them, but also outward: This rig, this company, this whole toxic mess. ]

[He breathes in and lets out in a few deep breaths.]

[Tears his eyes aware from hers.]

[Unbuttons another button and tugs more on his collar like he's suffocating.]

[The problem with not being able to meet her eyes is that looking down isn't an escape from why he can't face her. From what's making him feel like he's drowning.]

[There's a small, deep green stain on an otherwise polished shoe. The alien wasn't the first person he'd seen die but he still hadn't realized blood could spray that far. When he'd found his wife she was already gone. And with others...he hadn't stayed close to the dying during the worst of it. Anytime there were strange animal noises in the mist or rioting or gunfire, he'd just run, his daughter in his arms.]

[Somehow, over the months and months, he'd run long enough that dying hadn't happened to them.]

[His voice is calmer, but it's the calm of someone forcing it.]

...Do you think Mr. Five would have?

Edited 2021-08-28 06:22 (UTC)

[ She watches him, sees where his eyes land, feels another sting of disgust at the memory. ]

[ She didn't know Brainy on a very personal level. She hasn't been the most sociable or trusting person on this rig. But still, she knows the answer. Carolina lets out a long, considering breath. ]

Brainiac Five was trapped here with a bunch of strangers, and built a system to try to keep the rest of us safe. He saw a bunch of innocent people whose lives were in danger, and in the end he gave his trying to protect us.

I think he would have, if the company hadn't decided to be what he had to protect us from.

[Washburn closes his eyes tight as he considers what could have been. Even if only half the group had decided to help. A quarter. A fifth...]

[With their powers and intellects and abilities and training, what could have been?]

The rig was originally created by many different people working together before Jorgmund took it over. But it wasn't all cooperation. There was so much violence after the bombs, so much horror, and it wasn't all the monsters.

Or at least it wasn't all the monsters made of Stuff. It was the other kind.

Trust comes at a premium these days. It may still be what ends us. At the very least, it certainly won't save us, the way that perhaps it could have.

[He slumps into one of the library chairs, the shock device loose in his hand, loose enough that maybe he wishes he didn't have to hold it.]

We knew something had been done to the comms, enabled some kind of private traffic, but IT still can't crack it. They only let you keep the comms at all so they could keep trying and hopefully monitor for any whispers of open rebellion.

He was the primary suspect - it was so clearly advanced beyond anything Earth had even before it was ruined. He successfully broke into the lab his first day here, you know. He already had one Violation before he met the rest of you.

They knew he didn't kill Planker but it was a message, and a means to sabotage your chances. Perhaps without someone to monitor it and make changes we might have cracked his code. Risk management also was worried about him breaking into the labs again.

Corporate eliminated the risk.

[He finally meets her eyes again. There's resolve there.]

[And he leans to the side, reaches into a pocket, takes out a slip of paper, with a series of complicated handwritten numbers, small algorithms. He holds it for a second, staring at it, trying to accept the enormity of what he's about to do.]

And one of the people who might have been the best equipped to find a way to fix this without rolling over a town.

[ She won't let him retreat back behind the screens of justification that Jorgmund is all too happy to roll out. But also, she doesn't need to break him. He's already broken: this is a scared wreck of a man whose only comfort is probably the belief that he's had no choice. ]

[ She sees the paper then, and it knocks the other thoughts away. ]

...Is that what I think it is?

[ Oh god damn. She straightens, trying to downplay how important this might be but only barely managing. ]

I know you all stole a shock collar implant. I don't know how you did it, but I know. Boyle chalked it up to an inventory mistake rather than admit he allowed such a breach.

I handle inventory of important assets. I'm very meticulous.

I also have the rig's layout memorized. It's my job to know the rig from top to bottom. Security systems, ventilation shafts, hidden passageways, access tunnels, exhaust pipelines...

[Places where you might get dust and soot on your clothes...]

I know from IT help desk tickets that the camera in his office never works and that Alexa never responds there, the latter being of great annoyance to him. I know Boyle's lunch schedule because I handle the scheduling. I also know from reviewing HR complaints about lab security that Boyle keeps leaving his computer screen unlocked when he walks away from his desk.

I know his floor has a hidden access tunnel under one part of the rug. He doesn't.

[He knows all those things because he's a very, very good bureacrat.]

I'm good at my job.

[He holds out the slip of paper.]

If there are any of you left that understand technology, if they're still studying the shock collar you stole...

It won't solve your problems but it might at least help them understand the activation frequencies. I don't have the security clearances to get you into the tower control room. This is the closest I can get you.

[A pause, as he realizes something else.]

Well... I suppose I can also give you this, as well. It might help even more.

[...And he holds out his fob for the shock collars.]

You'll only have about four hours before one of the regular security checks discovers I've "misplaced" it. If that. They regularly check that I still have it in my possession, that it hasn't been lost.

When they find out, they'll transmit a code that makes it self destruct, destroying its potential utility. Just like the other transmission signals, it can't easily be blocked.

Edited 2021-08-28 07:23 (UTC)

Shit.

[ There were so many ways this could have gone. Carolina hadn't believed she could get this much. She's scary. She's good in a fight. She's not good at people and never honed anything she'd need to persuade someone to flip like this. ]

[ ...Right? ]

[ She reaches out to take what she still can't believe she's being handed. They're real. They're in her fingers now and they're real and she has them. ]

[ Carolina pulls her eyes away from her impossible prize, slips the paper and fob into a pocket, and looks at Dickwash. ]

We'll use this.

[ That's a promise. Good job, pencilneck, you finally took a risk to do something right. ]

We'll take any time you can give us, but you need to get out of here. You hurt a lot of people on this rig more than I can ask anyone to forgive.

[He finally stands, starts rebuttoning his collar.]

I'm not overly concerned with what will happen to me. Regardless of which side is responsible.

[There is no begging for his life, no asking her for promises of safe passage...]

[Just him being politely resigned to what's probably inevitable.]

[ She nods, curtly. ]

I made a lot of decisions I'm not proud of, once. People died because of them. I hoped I might be one, for a while.

But if I had, we wouldn't have had this conversation. I wouldn't have had a chance to be someone else.

[ She looks toward the door. There are several people she knows are anxiously waiting for her to get back out there in one piece. It also just makes it easier to say this, facing away. ]

I was really young when I lost my mom.

I lost my dad too, it just took him a lot longer to die.

I don't think your kid deserves that.

[He freezes for a moment. Thinks long and hard because there are mental calculations to make here. About what she needs. About what he deserves.]

My mother would still be there for her.

[But there is a realization, one that actually makes him frown, when he's rarely expressive.]

Then again, I should perhaps relocate the two of them. The corporation is extensive and not centered on the rig. Workplace retaliation is always a concern when your employer is displeased with your performance. Fortunately, it's rather easy to disappear these days.

[He finishes tightening his tie.]

I assume I'll know the proper time to attempt an escape. I imagine it will be loud.

[ That does draw out a faint, not necessarily reassuring smile. ]

I guarantee it.

Go do what you need to, Washburn.

I have work to do.

[ With that, Carolina turns to go report to her cavalry. ]

[Jennifer gasps hearing the horrible news and, like the smart young lady she is, she asks:]

Excuse me, why can't we just welcome them on the Rig if that is a concern? They could help us!

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New Mission

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(For context, this is after Brainy)

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