[IC] The Call to Infinity

Switchblade brushes off the residue of mold from his fingers before walking over to the corpse. "Looks like we aren't the only ones who had an idea of hiding from law enforcement here." He picks at the electrical wire and, with a disgusting squelching sound, pulls it off the body's neck. "Considering that the hatch was closed, either it's automatic or whoever stole this person's uniform came and left through some other entrance. Do you suppose they were a guard?" The cyborg flips the corpse onto its back, intending to investigate further. "Ah, human organisms, always so fragile."

As he examines the likely asphyxiated victim further, Switchblade spares a glance towards the radio. "No mention of either of us." He notes. "Let's hope they manage to lay low until we can reunite."

Ulysses brushes the moss from his hands. "I don't like it, it gets worse the more time we spend in this hellhole. Stray frosty, we may not be alone down here.", he says and goes to the terminal, wiping the screen and trying to power it. "Is he stiff?" he asks, trying to determine if the death of the unknown man was recent.

"Frosty? Ha, I don't even need to try, this place is freezing on its own," Switchblade points off-handedly over his shoulder, at the broken coolant pipe. "At least according to my sensors, I don't really feel cold. Just like this fellow here now..." With this morbid comment, the cyborg continues his examination of the body. "Let's see how long this body's been inoperational..."

"I'd say they've been dead for a few weeks - three minimum, likely no longer than five." Switchblade looks between the dusty screen and the frozen corpse a few times, comparing what little features remain. "Whatever this terminal station is intended to handle, it must not be very important if no one had checked it out in over a month. This fellow must've not had a very caring employer, either; or anyone else for that matter."

The cyborg stands up from where he was crouched over the body and walks over to join Ulysses at the terminal. "Are we snooping?" He grins, eyeing the rows of delivery records before them.

"That is a very accurate assessment," Dell agrees. "We need to get away from this vehicle as well as out of sight, NOW!"

Dell will take the first turn off the main road that is available, as fast as he deems is safe to do without looking like reckless driving that will draw the attention of the drones and their minders.

Dell continues to wonder at the linkage between the Leviath forces present on station and the employees at the power plant. It seems as if the kids vandalizing the SpeedE had been looking for them specifically as if they'd been instructed to find them--but the plant security shouldn't have known about them unless they were in touch with the Leviath security at the spaceport. Now the Leviath throughout the station had reacted the moment that the plant became aware of the issue? That all seemed too coordinated, he hoped the others hadn't stepped into some fully active Leviath operation unawares. And what did it mean that the target deserter was actively working in what appeared to be a Leviath run construction project?

Enough other problems to deal with in the present, however; if he's aware of a safehouse nearby, he'll head for it, failing that he wants something with a garage that will at least temporarily obscure the location of the SpeedE, optimally with an attached closed or abandoned-looking building to get themselves out of camera view.

"Yeah but the hornet drones, Dell. I don't suppose there is some kind of rifle in this jalopy that I could shoot them down with." She's only half joking with that question.

"I'm afraid I'm not much help in the weapon department."

Dell picks up the stunner from the guard he had tackled earlier, which has been sliding about aimlessly on the floor and hands it to the doctor. "If one gets near enough, you're welcome to see if this works, but my goal is to not let it come to that."'

He nods toward the road.

"A couple of possibilities here, but I think we'd be conspicuous in the school since it's not clear everyone's invited. Let's head towards the area around that tower, but I wouldn't assume the crowd will hide us from the drones, we want to get inside a building out of sight, but there should hopefully be enough foot traffic in and out for our presence to seem unremarkable."

He drives in that direction and looks to stash the SpeedE in the jumble of buildings.

"Uh, thanks," Ava says as she accepts the stunner, not sure it could knock a drone down if need be, but certainly a person wouldn't enjoy being by it.

Thinking about the school idea she nods her assent. "That's as good idea as I've heard all day."

"Tell me about it," Ava replies jokingly, trying to keep the mood light. "Payment?" she asks, perplexed. Then it dawns on her.

"Oh no. We're not here for that." Then she wonders if she should play along but where would that get them, unless they could leave with another vehicle as a form of payment.

"You know what? How about you pay us with a similar running vehicle?"

"Yes, some frat boys near where we were parked earlier vandalized our vehicle, and to be entirely honest I'm not quite sure what sort of things those inebriated kids sprayed on it. I believe fluid from those goats they had may have been involved at some step?" He looks at Ava and shrugs, then back at the man. "You're braver than I to touch it, I probably wouldn't recommend that--first place I'm heading is to find an autobody shop that will hammer it out and detail it."

Dell puts an arm around the doctor and attempts to hurry her out of the garage and the attendant's sight before the man can connect the damage to the front of the vehicle and the red stain to a hit and run. He's hoping the general damage to all sides of the vehicle will somewhat distract from the overall impression of a collision to the front.

Ava nods, perhaps overzealously, while Dell tells his tale. Her eyebrows arch when he mentions goats and fluid, but otherwise she keeps quiet.

"Thanks. You saved my stupid ass, or our asses, mine being the stupid one. But meanwhile now what? Hope to find the others for a ride?"

Switchblade squints at the terminal screen - less out of a desire to see better and more to emote his feelings on the matter. "Same cargo for months, recorded in a weird sewer hole ways away from the actual storage? Things just keep getting weirder." He snorts in amusement, then pokes at the console: "Think this thing can display the contents of the delivery? Eh, I'll leave this to you, I'm not that good at computers which aren't going inside one's brains."

He leaves Ulysses at the console and instead circles the room, checking for anything else of note it might contain. Mostly scrap which he can poach; but also any indication of another exit that they can take, or anything curious enough to grab his attention. While he does it, Switchblade also listens for activity above them, in case the Leviath are still around.

"My hope was to hide until things quiet down," Dell replies. "I think we're more of a danger to the others than an aide if we show up with a swarm of drone and guards pursuing us."

He shrugs and a puff of steam huffs from vents along his shoulders.

"I'm not too worried they'll find a way to meet us when it is safe. It perhaps says something that they were able to enter the building undetected and we raised alarms just walking around in a parking lot."

Switchblade gives the improvised sewer access a look. He's not squeamish, but cleaning his cybernetics from liquid contaminants is an absolute pain. Not to mention how many diseases one can acquire from wading through dirty water.

The noise from the radio attracts his attention away from the sewer dilemma, and Switchblade makes a note of the location it relays. "At least we know where not to go." He sighs, eyes the floor again and then promptly closes the door. Not today, sewer spirits. At least not until they absolutely need to. "I don't hear any activity above us, so the law enforcement is likely back at the power plant. They'll probably head out to the parking lot now, so we might as well wait until they pass us again and then get out. It's not like either of us is connected to Dell or Dr. Renn... aside from us arriving at the plant in the same vehicle."

He returns to the terminal again and pokes Ulysses with his claw-like finger. "There is also a way into the sewer," the cyborg motions towards the door, "but I'd prefer not to use it unless under significant threat. Perhaps we can go back to the highway and make it to the fence without being noticed, then go through the industrial streets while all of them are focusing on finding the car."