Below Absolute Zero

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DeletedUser35174

Ethan spent the next two days pondering over Isaac's words, seize control of the station. Today was the day he was to give an answer, should he or shouldn't he, a thousand thoughts floated through his mind. All he had ever known was combat, growing up, foster home to foster home, never on any of the houses did he find peace. Always he was bullied, everyone used to look at him as if he was some sort of monster...until he joined the marines. There he was treated as an equal, none made fun of him...they respected him. It was the family he never had, but as every good thing that ever happened to him... it was taken away from him. Ethan saw his fellow comrades...his brothers in arms, shot down and killed. Their screams still haunted him at night, yet when most died, he lived. Sometimes he wished he had died in the ambush, and now he was presented with a choice, either join Speer and probably kill, or not join him and probably be killed. But why he thought, what good would it do.

“also whose round is it anyway?", Ethan looked around, he was at the cafeteria, OW he thought as he realized his hand was burned from the hot coffee cup he was holding. Gazing at the people he realized it was Harriet who asked whose round it is, "ummm....ye.. it's my turn" mumbled Ethan, still in thought.
 

DeletedUser13682

The next couple of days had gone by without incident, except for the nightly screamings of Harriet. Just like the first night, Harriet would wake everybody up with het reenactment of every horror movie made. Though he didn't get much sleep, Peadar wasn't angry with Harriet. Peadar didn't mind helping her any way he could. For some reason, Harriet was apologizing for her fits. "It happens. Besides, I'm sleeping better than I did in the Cavalry. And the way I see it, I'd rather you wake me up than that AWB goon Speer, no offense, Ethan."

Harriet muttered something that Peadar didn't quite catch; it was probably some good natured ethnic joke. She then asked if there was time for more coffee, which Peadar had been drinking much more of since he arrived. After it was asked whose round it was, Ethan muttered it was his turn. "You don't look so good, Ethan," Peadar said. A glimpse could tell anyone that fact. "I'll get this round." After Peadar returned with the coffees, "What's bothering you, Ethan? That Boer brute riding you hard? You should see if Stieg'll take you. Maintenance is pretty soothing, and I could always use more help. More stuff keeps breaking than I can fix."
 

DeletedUser

Over the next 48 hours it became clear to Doemenic that something very big and bad was going on. Repeated accidents, injuries and deaths, forged documents. Something was going on. Problem was there weren't any files on the main database, encrypted or otherwise.
However through his searching he did find out that the other person interested in the information was Sara Rukin, Mr Weilland's PA. A spy maybe? If so, government or freelance. Regardless, she was the only way he was going to get a look into Weilland's hard drive.
Rubbing his eyes (he'd barely slept over the last two days) he began to type a message.

Hello. You've been snooping around the databases. So have I. You've hit a dead end. So have I. You want to find out what's going on. So do I. We have mutual interests. You have the opportunity, I have the skills. If you want to find out what is going on, then reply to this message. I can get you a Worm program to insert into Weilland's hard drive. We both share the information.

Signed, Neo.

Making sure that it was encrypted and untraceable, he clicked 'Send'.
Leaning back in his chair he went back to the mundane maintenance tasks that were called work.
 

DeletedUser31931

Sarah had spent the last few days trailing through files in her spare time, she'd copied a few off, and established contact with her employer who she'd sent them to for decoding via her untraceable Pocket Computer which one of her Exs, a hacker had sweetly installed a program for her so that they could send secret love messages to one another or so she had convinced him was the reason, and being under the lipstick at the time, he had lovingly obliged at which point she convinced him to forget she existed and never appeared in his life again.

Anyway, it was a slow method and so she smiled when she saw a message signed by a Neo to get her the info and quickly. She typed a reply, untraceable, no doubt like his if she bothered to check.

Hello Neo my darling. Escaped the Matrix have we? Always a bit to boring for my tastes. Why the secrecy, you know who I am, come to my room, the door's open for a fly boy like you.

She sent the message and smiled, if the man was a computer geek then he should hopefully come running. If not, she wanted to see his face, make sure it wasn't a trap before she continued.
 

DeletedUser28032

Harriet
Despite Peadar's ascertations that she wasn't bothering him she still felt bad about it, promising herself to go down to the infirmary for some meds, if Speer would let her of that is.
Upon hearing the Irishman's comment Harriet drops her head to peer into Ethan's eyes, grimacing at what she saw "Bloody hell Ethan you look like Ricky used to when he came off the uppers, do you need us to take you down to medical?" there had been some statistic in the welcome packs they'd received within their apartments about how many people went off sick within their first month within the station, something to do with the cold climate she supposed.
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Stieg
It’s too damn early for this Stieg silently grumbled as he climbed the metal stairs leading up to the new manager’s office. So far he'd managed to resist doing the man's paperwork always managing to find a valid excuse not to do it, resulting in the hapless girl being sent down instead.
Upon seeing the girl wrapped up in a thick parka with a bundle of paperwork in her arms struggling to open the door he offers her a friendly smile before yanking on the handle opening the door with the creaking of frozen hinges "There you go love, the hinges sometimes freeze if they've been recently oiled" he explained whilst she gratefully entered the building.
Following her down the short corridor and into the new managers office he finds Mark sat behind his desk mired in paperwork "Morning boss, are you ready to see the new dig site?"
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Mark
The new dig site had been a stroke of genius on his part as not only would it provide the company with new revenue should it prove viable but a way for him to skim away certain funds into his own pocket, one look at the drifts of paperwork had told him that it was possible to do so. The deeper he went the more forged and bogus documentation he seemed to find though the large amount of forms stating the disappearance of work personnel was more than a little worrying.
 

DeletedUser35174

Kill or be killed, the same thought vibrated through his mind the whole morning. He finally realized there was no way our, he's either with Speer or on his own. ".....and I could always use more help. More stuff keeps breaking than I can fix." Ethan lazily glanced up and realized Peadar was talking to him. "ummmm.. ye.. sure" he mumbled quietly, his head still buzzing with the decision that lay before him. Bloody hell Ethan you look like Ricky used to when he came off the uppers, do you need us to take you down to medical?" asked Harriet. Turning his gaze from Seamus to Harriet he shook his head and said "no". He glanced back to Peadar and realized he had brought new coffees, realising what he done Ethan thanked him for buying the coffees. "Excuse me... I better get to work" He put on a lazy smile as he did and made his way to the armory to give Speer his final word.
 
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DeletedUser13682

Ethan was really out of it. He had no idea what Peadar was talking about, mumbling some response. After Harriet inspected Ethan, she declared him worse than some guy she knew who liked amphetamines. Peadar didn't think that Ethan was on drugs; he just needed sleep. He needed a day off. Ethan, ever the trooper, walked away toward the armoury to gear up for the day.

"He needs a break. I doubt Speer lets him relax. And if he is an American Marine, whatever ship Speer runs ain't no pleasure cruise." Peadar sipped his coffee, found it lacking in kick. A small infusion from a hip flask cured the coffee of its lack of kick. "Nearly time to go. You should tell us about your new dig site."
 

DeletedUser

Doemenic almost spat out his coffee as he read the reply;

Hello Neo my darling. Escaped the Matrix have we? Always a bit to boring for my tastes. Why the secrecy, you know who I am, come to my room, the door's open for a fly boy like you.

Putting down his cup he immediately closed the tab and went back to his work. Was she really trying to seduce him? An overweight, aging alcoholic nerd? There was no way he would do that kind of thing. It would be betraying his wife. There he was, thinking about her again... she was dead though. She'd want him to get on with his life wouldn't she?
Putting the seduction aside, he realised that there was no way he could establish a bond of trust if he didn't talk to her face to face. No one trusted the anonymous words in an email. Nobody trusted the voicechanger at the end of the phone. He had to meet face to face. But it could be a trap... ah, screw it. He had to put all of his eggs into one basket if he was going to find out what was going on.

Later on, after he'd clocked off from his work, we went over to Sarah's room and rapped on the door. Here he was, win or end up an 'accidental fatality'.
 

DeletedUser31931

Sarah had ended work early with permission from Margaret with regards that it was "her time of the month" and she hadn't slept well (OOC: Level 2 Lying remember). Therefore she was flicking through her data when there was a knock at the door. Figuring it was her mystery man, she composed herself, applied a little make-up and opened the door. Her facade slipped with surprise for about a nanosecond as she registered the face and realised it wasn't entirely surprising. "Hello Domenic. Come in. Fancy seeing a man like you come into a girl's bedroom whilst she was all alone, people might talk."
 

DeletedUser

"Let them." Doemenic muttered in response. Stepping past her he moved into her room. "I'm not here to play games. I can get you a Worm program. Are you prepared to plant it?" He said abruptly. Hopefully he could get this over with as quickly as possible.
It wasn't that he felt uneasy around women... well actually it was. He didn't want to be reminded of his wife, and that seemed to happen all the time now.
So he had to focus his mind on getting that information. He had absolutely no idea what he'd do with it once he got it, but he was going to get it anyway, even if it was just to keep his mind busy.
 

DeletedUser31931

Doemenic came in, and immediately stated what he wanted as she closed the door. "Good, I like a straight talking man." She replied, "Now then, how do I know I can trust you not to rip me off and steal the data for yourself?" She didn't like this, placing faith in someone else didn't usually end well for her. She didn't trust any of her clients either, even the repeat ones. "Give me the worm program, I'll get it looked over, and if I like what I see, we have a deal. If not, then tough. Does that sound fair? You better have it on a memory stick."
 

Deleted User - 819397

Xenon rubbed his eyes under his glasses. The past couple of days had been frustrating, but he knew it was worth it. As he and the assistant he'd managed to get worked through the paperwork, he'd gained a good perspective on the kind of place this facility was, and how to best exploit it. The easiest way was what he had done, getting a new dig site going and taking a little of the profits off for himself, something that had clearly been done before. These people were so naive, thinking that their employees would be good little worker drones, just because they were stuck on this frozen hunk of rock. In truth, it just meant security could be lax, meaning it was, and that was opportunistic.

The only thing that bothered him were the odd disappearance reports. They were quite frankly too common, and because there was never a follow up where they turned up, he had to assume they had died. Now, working in such a cold environment, he supposed it was possible for an idiot or two to wander too far down an unused mining site and freeze to death before managing to get back out, but it had been happening far too often for that. What was happening to cause this many "disappearances"?

Xenon was shaken out of his musings by his assistant coming in, followed by Stieg. "Good morning," he nodded to both of them. He'd decided it was best to be nice (or at least for him) to the girl, as it was clear she hadn't wanted to come down to the area. A disgruntled employee wasn't a good thing, so he had to ensure she had no reason to dislike him. Stieg he still needed, as the mining head had the loyalty of the subordinate miners...he'd need to start working on him once he moved past simple fund skimming. The seasoned miner asked if he was ready to see the new dig site. "Of course," he replied, standing up, pulling on his designer overcoat and gloves. "I trust we'll be able to start digging today as planned?" he asked as he followed Stieg out of the office.
 

DeletedUser

Sara asked how she could trust him. Doemenic's mind began running through various ways he could prove to her that she could trust him. None of them were satisfactory, but on the other hand, could he trust her? This could just be a trap.
"Give me the worm program, I'll get it looked over, and if I like what I see, we have a deal. If not, then tough. Does that sound fair? You better have it on a memory stick."
"Fine." Reaching into his pocket Doemenic pulled out a data chip. Earlier he'd taken the liberty of writing a sophisticated worm program. If the chip was inserted into any computer drive the program would instantly be transferred onto the drive, and provide a hole through which the owner of the program could insert and remove data.
He held the chip out to her. "Here it is. Careful, it's very sophisticated hardware. It'll work on anything you put it in, you don't even need to press Y. It's automated."
 

DeletedUser31931

Sara listened and quickly replied "Then how do I get it sent to my friend to get it scanned without you having a look at my hard drive?" Sara asked. She didn't like this one bit, factors that she couldn't control and people who were mostly unknown to her, the whole thing sniffed of a trap.
 

DeletedUser

Doemenic smiled as she asked how she'd be able to scan it. "Oh come on, just insert it in a spare computer, although not one that is used regularly. Wouldn't want to risk anyone finding the Worm before it did it's real work." Although he acted like this was the obvious answer, it was really the only answer. Worm programs were notoriously difficult to scan for, which was the whole point of their existence.
 

DeletedUser31931

She listened to his explanation and nodded "Ok pretty boy, now then. Run along then, you'll know if I like it, as we'll get our data." She spoke briskly before opening the door and saying "Thanks for the help Doemenic, I'm sure my Pocket Computer will be up and running shortly." Before winking at him and gesturing the door.
 

DeletedUser28032

Harriet
Harriet watched as a downtrodden Ethan slowly made his way towards the armoury leaving the second cup of coffee untouched as he did so.
Still distracted by her nagging worry for Ethan she only half hears Peadar's question and looks momentarily confused until her brain finally catches up "Huh?...oh the new dig, yeah that new manager down in Alpha has commissioned a new dig site so I need to go down and take some samples to see if its worthwhile" though from what one of guys in the lab had told her you couldn't bore a heating pipe without finding the ore so she didn't see there being any problems "Come we should get going ourselves" she says draining the last of her coffee before pulling on a bright red jacket and waiting for the Irishman to finish his own drink before heading off towards the station, quietly excited about finally getting out of the lab and curious as to whether it was as truly cold as she'd been led to believe.
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Speer
Slowly turning the dials on an old style radio Speer concentrates on the message before cutting off the signal and sending people to the required posts. It was just as he was about to dispatch Isaac and Raul that Ethan walked into the room looking decidedly unwell "Ethan good to see you again" he greeted the other man warmly, a slight motioning of his hand causing the other two security personnel to sit back down for the time being "Well today’s the day that we all become rich men Ethan now will you be joining us in our good fortune or have you a different course of action you wish to pursue?"
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Stieg
"Today? no, digging will commence some time tomorrow morning, today we'll be doing the preliminary blasting and boring once we get the go ahead from the Canary in the science team" not that he'd ever had a dig refused for being unprofitable but it paid to go by the book after all it was his head on the chopping block if they got it wrong.
Leading his new boss; dressed in a stylish though thoroughly impractical over coat across the compound he meets up with two other miners before handing Mark a white safety helmet and oxygen mask before donning his own helmet "The mask is only a precaution so there’s no need to put it on just yet...same for these guys really, we've never been down those tunnels before and we've lost enough men to know that it’s a bad idea to wander off by yourself...if you know what I mean?" it had been going off by himself that had gotten his predecessor killed and although they had never found a body Stieg knew that Mack had been far too experienced to simply become lost and freeze to death, no there was something up with these tunnels. Every now and again he would get the sensation of being watched, a sensation that caused even a big guy like Stieg to find somewhere else to be.
 

DeletedUser35174

Ethan made his way to the armory where he was greeted by a cheerful Speer, "Well today’s the day that we all become rich men Ethan now will you be joining us in our good fortune or have you a different course of action you wish to pursue?". Ethan took a moment, staring into Speer's eyes. He had stayed up 3 nights and days pondering over the decision, until he came to one he thought was best for everyone. "I'll join you Speer, on the condition that no one from my block is killed or in anyway hurt" replied Ethan. He knew Speer wanted to get his hands on Harriet and Peadar.
 
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DeletedUser13682

What was it with being distracted this morning? First Ethan, now Harriet. Not that Peadar wasn't a bit distracted himself. Seemed Harriet wasn't doing much more than making sure the new dig would bring in money. If Peadar remembered correctly, there wasn't a place you could dig that wasn't profitable, even if you were an idiot. Peadar finished his coffee just after Harriet, grabbing his lunch, his jacket, a bomber type leather coat, and heading to the bus depot. Peadar attempted some small talk.

"Ya know, if you manage to get any good stuff, you should bring a bit over. I have a habit to support you know, and it costs a bit of tin to make a dinner for someone that rates better than the mush they try to serve us at Alpha. You brought your own lunch, didn't you?" Peadar asked this with a small shake of his lunch pail.
 

DeletedUser

Sara said that it was OK, and told him to get going. He nodded. "When you're satisfied, mail me though the channel I used to contact you. And don't use real names." He replied, before walking out of her room.
Rubbing his eyes he headed over to the bar to begin another night's drinking.
 
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