Re: ULMF the Third (RP Thread)
"You think TP could be manipulated by his benefactor?"
Host scratches his chin. “Well, that’s a possibility… but I wouldn’t bet on it. Toonpimp’s pretty paranoid; anyone screwing him over, or even just attempting to steal some of his glory, wouldn’t have an easy time of it.”
A moment later, the demon is questioned by Shrike and Shade, and is forced to admit defeat, raising his hands in surrender. “Woah, hey; I know I must seem like a wellspring of knowledge on programmers, but most of this is general information. I don’t have a clue how their powers actually work, and I’ve never heard about a fight between a Psychic and a Programmer, so I can’t say one way or the other.”
Host hopped out of the truck, cracking his knuckles backwards. “Alright… if we’re lucky, the bots will be the same as in Toonpimp’s palace, and won’t be networked together, so killing one won’t immediately blow our cover. If they are networked, we’ll need to move fast – otherwise, we can take our time if we’re sneaky enough.” (…Wait, who was the squad leader here? Well, I guess not actually being an ULMFer gives the demon a decent amount of leeway in which to speak his mind…) Under Rapture’s order, he and the rest of the squad head out silently, heading for the complex.
The building is rectangular; all metal, smooth and small… of course, as Rapture’s images had revealed, the visible structure on the surface was only the beginning of a fairly reasonable underground complex. The only indication of any shield at all was the burnt patches of grass at occasional points from Rapture’s testing around the structure – and the larger one at the front. Oddly, no one had bothered to actually attempt to cover the large truck-fire burns up. One had to wonder if the building was actually staffed at all, or if only machines ‘lived’ inside…
The resident psychic of the squad would be able to clarify that, as Shrike was able to pick up something thinking inside – which meant something sentient and non-mechanical… but the thoughts were hazy, disjointed and not quite possible to make out. The depth of the complex might be interfering with her ability to sense the minds inside, or to separate them from one another if there turned out to be more than one.
Almost hugging the edge of the building, four bots patrolled. The things were quite obviously machines, not bothering with the faux-human covering that was oddly popular with the things these days. A single, red-light was fixed into the right side of its head, presumably a camera, and nondescript metal covered the machine’s more sensitive parts. Each one carried a Škorpion in one of its robotic hands. The patrol was actually quite dumbly set up; the bots were constantly looking forward as they walked, rather than out into the treeline, and there was a fairly blatant, approximately eight-second gap in which no bot was present on the short side of the building – including the one Rapture’s assembled squad was facing. …Unfortunately, figuring this out was a task in and of itself – floodlights, one to the short sides and two to the long sides, were aimed directly at the treeline opposite the structure. While the patrol route and the lack of any change in the burnt grass would seem to indicate a deficit of any intelligent presence, the floodlights
were new.
“Well, so much for my integrated night vision…” Host murmurs, trying to see through the lights as he peers from the treeline, shielding himself from the light with a hand. “…I can see bots… damnit, can anybody tell what we’re dealing with?”
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