A plotline about a weird alien glowbug guy and his friends, and their adventures in criminal activity.
Moebius Acquisitions
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Introduction/Backlog 1
Article: This is the first update of a quest-format story I will be running on this forum after trailed off in another website. This will eventually be driven by suggestions, but there is a bit of backlog to get through before that starts, and I will be posting these updates slowly over a time period to test reception to the work. I will make it clear when suggestions are open, so just enjoy the story for now
Of note: When suggestions DO open, this story will be strictly SFW. Explicit or otherwise NSFW suggestions will not be responded to.
Article:
Another day reaches its close on the balmy and tropical planet Restoria. Though it is the homeworld of the Aqualine race, the climate is pleasant enough that most races in the Alliance use it as a resort world. And like many tourist spots, it attracts food and entertainment providers to serve them (for profit).
The Cavitch Comestibles Company is one of them, and they own a significant portion of the food and drink stands on this continent - most of them under such enticing names as Icey Froot and Sunni Wingz. Tacky though they may be, they still turn a good profit from oblivious visitors buying overpriced novelty foods.
Our story begins at their corporate headquarters. With the day ending, the employees who work there are ending their shifts and going home. This will leave the building mostly empty, which is good for the purposes of our protagonist, a glimneon named Trace. Trace is a skilled thief in a team of acquisition specialists, and he's planning to break in after the scout in his team tells him everyone except the night crew has left. His mission today: To extract valuable sensitive data from the corporate database on the third floor of the building.
In the meantime, he enjoys a bag of Appl Puffs, one of the products of his target. He's had better snacks in his day, definitely, but they're a tasty enough treat to pass the time before the job begins. They're even more delicious because he didn't have to pay the outrageous price for them - his sophisticated stealth suit ensured that the probably underpaid aqualine running the Snak Stand didn't even notice when they went missing. Or maybe they just didn't care.
Either way, he was deciding how he was going to do this. Previous intelligence on the building suggested they had cameras spread throughout the building being monitored by a guard at night, but Trace wasn't worried about that. No one ever saw him on cameras. More importantly, he had to decide how to get to the top floor.
-There was an elevator on the north side of the building, according to surveillance, but whether it required some form of authentication was unclear. Even if it did, there was probably a way to get hold of one if he searched the building. Getting access to that would make entering and leaving the third floor building faster. He didn't plan on riding the elevator, of course - he would climb out through the top and ascend the cables directly to the floor he wanted, if possible. He might also need to find some tools on-site to break open the elevator ceiling hatch. It would be a risky endeavor, because he wasn't sure how secure the elevator was, or if it had alarms.
-There was a set of stairs leading down to the fire exit he was loitering around the corner from, but that was almost certain to require keycards or similar to progress up through. That would only take him to the second floor, though, which was mostly offices, and he would have to find a keycard on one of the night shift members that could get him to the third floor from there. This would be a slower route with more potential night shift employees on the way, but the one most guaranteed to succeed. Probably.
>Stuff the bag of chips in your hollow butt.
Trace cannot fit his bag of chips in his butt, it is filled to capacity with bioluminescent goo! Removing that would be painful and also a bad idea, because it powers his Stealth Suit! Fortunately, he has another place to put it.
>Also why are we stealing "valuable" "sensitive" data from a junk food company? How much use could info from this place be?
His team's leader, Raedia, was a little vague on the specifics of the data he was supposed to procure, but provided him with a useful pre-programmed data chip he could plug into the company main-frame to obtain the required files. Trace wasn't really that good with computer things, anyway, so he didn't mind. He could operate one, but he was far from a hacker.
The way he saw it, the company was probably holding some sort of top-secret data for someone else that did not actually have to do with food production. Maybe so no one would think to look of it there? Raedia knew what she was doing, either way.
> Slow and steady, take the stairs. Pick pocketing key cards should be a breeze with that stealth suit.
> My memories of Mission Impossible tell me we should take the stairs, if it is a emergency exit then it shouldn't be lock.
> Forward with those stairs!
Trace comes to the decision of climbing the stairs just in time for a voice to come through on his headset.
"Trace? Get ready to stop slacking off, because the last employees are about the leave out the back door!" It is the voice of Redshift, his team scout, currently high up in the air and watching the inhabitants of the building through his enhanced eyes and telescopic vision. "After they leave, it'll just be the janitor and night guard. Good luck!"
Trace didn't need luck, though. He made his own luck. As he activated his stealth suit and peered around the corner, the fire exit opened, and a gorm and razorwing stepped out, deep in conversation. The uniforms of this company really were the worst color, but his keen eyes noticed something potentially valuable - the Razorwing had an ID card clearly visible on his waist. That could be just the thing to help Trace get deeper into the building, if he wanted to try pick it off their shirt as he passed. Or he could forgo that gamble and try to find an ID laying around somewhere inside. It would be less risk of being caught this early, but he wasn't sure there would be any to find other than this one right here, currently walking away. Either way, he planned to slip into the door before it closed behind them.
>Yoink that card as you slip inside.
> Steal that shit.
> Steal the card.
> Well as he's leaving for the night he doesn't need it and seeing as you just gave this place a nice packet of chips, it's only fair you get something in return.
The way Trace sees it, the razorwing is really the only one to blame here - if he wanted to wear his keycard out in the open on his waist, he was just asking for it to be stolen.
As Trace crept quietly closer, he overhead a snippet of their conversation.
"I'm telling you Avee, you find a boyfriend, you'll be a lot less stressed. Come to the bar with me for once." The gorm put an arm over the razorwing's shoulder, which seemed to make the razorwing very uncomfortable. This worked out fine for Trace, because it distracted 'Avee' long enough for him to steal the keycard off his shirt. As he slipped in through the door, he heard the Razorwing say, in a definitively female voice, "Ugh. Brak, I'm not going drinking with you again, after last time. Get your hand off my shoulder."
The door closed behind him, muffling the gorm's indignant retort, and Trace pondered for a moment about Razorwing gender dimorphism. It was probably something he should pay more attention to, but he would just ask Redshift about it later.
For now, though, Trace took a moment to survey his surroundings, and take stock of his equipment. He activated the HUD interface built into his suit, checking that everything was in order.
—-
-The batteries on his Stealth Suit were running off a full charge now.
-The suit's trademark Stealth Mode was currently activated, and with the current battery charge, it would last approximately an hour.
-The Grav-Walk function was currently disabled. Generally, this function was not turned on unless he needed it, because using it at the same time as Stealth Mode drained the batteries fast.
-His Stun Glove was currently functional, but unprimed. This was a nonlethal defensive measure built into the suit that took several seconds each to charge from the battery and deploy, but could generate a burst of light that would temporarily incapacitate a single target and cause short term memory loss. It took about a fifth of the suit's battery capacity to deploy, so he did not charge it unless he needed it.
-Aside from the data chip he had brought with him and the keycard, he had his three-set of Emergency Grenades. These included one Gravity, Spacial Phase Shift,and Temporal grenade each. He always kept them around during a heist, but Raedia had stressed to him that they were only there for actual emergencies, because they were very expensive and she would dock his cut of the payout if he made her replace them. He did not think he would need them during this mission.
—-
Now that he was actually inside, he had a couple choices. He could either go straight up the stairs and into the second floor, or take a little time to gather some intelligence about the building by exploring the bottom floor. Perhaps there was a map somewhere for employees.
He could already see that there were some standard issue security cameras hidden behind tinted domes. They wouldn't pick up him up while he was stealthed like this, but they would pick up doors opening. In his experience, though, a door opening rarely attracts as much attention as one might think. There are so many security cameras for a guard to watch that they probably would miss it unless they were actively watching that camera.
> Lets gather some info while we're here and then execute the perfect plan
> Do check out what's in that room. Will the ID work on the door despite being invisible?
The keycard is safely stored within a pocket in Trace's suit, but the stealth field does not extend far from his body. If he takes any of his tools out or picks up objects, they will not be concealed unless he completely covers them with his hands. That aside, the keycards work via a magnetic principle, so even if they were invisible, it should be no problem to use them to open doors.
Deciding to hold off on the stairs for now, Trace unlocks the door leading deeper into the first floor, slipping quietly inside. As it turned out, someone was already here! An aqualine he assumed was a janitor - given they had a mop - was walking into the open elevator, distracted by a small holotablet device. They did not notice the door across the hall open. Trace was considering trying to slip into the elevator with him, but his eyes moved to the right wall, and he stopped, staring.
He had never seen something so hideous. It was worse even than that carpet from the previous room. The glimneon was fairly sure it was supposed to be some kind of artwork… but whoever had made it clearly had no idea how color theory worked, or wanted to offend the eyes of everyone. Why would anyone hang this atrocity on the wall of a workplace?
Were they actually trying to torture their own employees with decor?
The elevator door closed while Trace was busy boggling at the horrifying abstract art and questioning just now nefarious this junk food company actually was. He finally managed to pull his gaze from it, and took a closer look at the room around him. There were three doors, and the blue double doors to the right side of the hall looked to only open from the other side. The purple door had been swinging shut when he came in, so it was probably a janitor closet of some kind. The greenish door was anyone's guess, but this didn't look like where one would find an employee lounge. He could explore either of them first, or turn back
The elevator was probably out for now, after it had recently been taken up a floor.
Really, anything that got him out of vision range of the Terrible Abstract Art would make him happy, though.
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Backlog 2
> Make sure the ART is not actually a map.
> No, you fool! That's not art! That's a map of the building!
> Gaze harder at the horrid art, fool!
Driven by a morbid desire to see the Terrible Abstract Art closer, in case it contains some valuable information, Trace approaches it. He stares at it for several long moments, his eyes burning from the horrendous clashing colors, before making a determination.
Everything about this artwork is horrible. Not only is it not a map, but from close up, he can see it's not even a painting. It's just a piece of wood someone painted bright red, then stuck cut strips of strips of opaque colored paper on top of. The only thing that could have been considered actually considered 'artwork' on this was the shitty, vague signature the artist left above their blue chunk on the right side. But it was so illegible the glimneon suspected it supposed to hide the original creator's identity in a deep shame.
Trace turned away, gagging slightly in disgust. Between this thing, and the mustard-puke carpet, he was starting to dislike this company. People called him a criminal, but who was the real monster here?
Either way, this modern abstract art was completely pointless and he wasn't going to stare at it anymore. If it had a secret meaning beyond torturing viewers with tackiness, he did not know what it was. He should probably do something more productive to his mission, like explore one of these doors, or go up the stairs.
> That janitor had a mop but no bucket or water, so unless it was some kind of science future lazer mop that janitor is suspicious.
Could it be that we're not the only ones infiltrating this place?
Trace had noticed the aqualine had only a mop when he went up the elevator, but maybe they just left their bucket upstairs? It was silly to think someone would infiltrate a building in a disguise, as a janitor. What kind of old-timey cheesy tactic would that be?
> Spit on it and move on.
Trace stomps away from the 'art', not even wasting his saliva on the thing. He's not upset, really. It's not like he's wasted a portion of his life (and suit charge) closely investigating a horrible painting. This glimneon is just about as chill as can be. He makes his way towards the stairs, definitely relaxed, as far as everyone who can't see him could tell.
Still, even if he was angry, which he definitely wasn't, he would probably calm himself down by the time he reached the top of the staircase.
> Let's go up the stairs!
> Anyway! Time to climb those stairs!
Trace heads up the stairs, quickly forgetting about bad art in the excitement of returning to performing a new heist. The keycard works exactly as intended, unlocking the upstairs door without any surprises or problems, and the glimneon leans into the room, scoping it out. It looks like the second floor is mostly office space, from what he can see, so that matches up with his earlier information about the building. With everything going so smoothly, he might be done before-
Hang on. What's that noise?
Right as Trace stepped out from the fire stair doorway, a total beast of a gorm came out through the opposite door, staring straight at where the glimneon was standing. Trace had a moment of panic, but then remembered that he was still using his stealth function, and that this gorm was probably looking through him, not at him.
The gorm had definitely seen the door closing behind him though, because they stopped, staring at the doorway the thief had just vacated. They lowered the can of coffee they were holding slightly, and Trace could practically hear gears turning in the security guard's head. For all he knew, gorm might have gears in their head for real, anyway. What a weird species.
The janitor came around the corner, busy with his mop and bucket, but clearly drawn to the sound of the doors opening. The aqualine glanced up for a moment at gorm, then nodded to them in recognition. "Hey, Pach."
The gorm tore his intense gaze from the closed door, and Trace took the opportunity to shuffle out from behind the front of it, just in case the security gorm decided to go downstairs. "Spume." The gorm turned back to the doorway Trace had just vacated, and took a drink from the canned coffee he had. "Was someone else just up here?"
"Nope."
The security gorm nodded and stepped forward, opening the door with a swipe of his arm, and heading downstairs without another word.
Trace had a decision to make, now. The only security guard in the building had seen something suspicious, and that would probably put him on alert, especially when he found no one downstairs or having just left the building. Fortunately, the glimneon was in an idea position to help him forget that. One burst from the Stun Glove and 'Pach' would conveniently forget his experience with the door, along with the last couple minutes, negating potential problems with raised alert this early on in the heist.
That would drain a significant portion of his Stealth Suit's charge, however, which he might end up needing later. Especially if he ended up having an altercation with the security guard for something unrelated to mysterious open doors. Maybe the gorm would even pointlessly search the lower floor for an intruder while Trace worked upstairs, possibly giving him more time to get the job done.
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- Location
- St. Petersburg
This story is pretty fun. Has all the right qualities (suspence, intrigue, humor), a good assortment of tools and a hint of deeper game mechanics, and starts us off with a heist.
Are you open to fixing some typos if pointed out?
Are you open to fixing some typos if pointed out?
This being the first sentence it might be important to create a good impression.
Thanks for the feedback! This content is almost over two years old, it didn't even occur to me to check if I made mistakes in the original text.
It's also hard to spot your own typos. Feel free to point out anything else and I'll fix that too.
Backlog 3
> The guard seems sufficiently distracted for the moment. Save your battery, and continue onward.
> Keep it on stealth! Look at that guy he's too big. He probably has no idea you are around but, uh, maybe you should pick up the pace?
> ignore the guard and keep looking around up here!
>Knocking out the guard isn't a good idea with the janitor wandering about. It would be best to leave them alone for now and focus on finding the data you need quickly.
Trace decided to leave the gorm be. There was more to be gained in leaving him alone at this point than trying to make him forget seeing the door open. Deciding to press on, the glimneon waited until the janitor had wandered out of earshot, then moved over to the door leading upstairs. There was really no reason to stay down here. The upper floors were probably empty now, with the guard gone, which was perfect for quickly finishing this mission.
He swiped the razorwing's card across the reader. It blinked orange a few times, the door didn't open.
The thief stared at the door for a moment, then tried again.
The lock blinked again, but the door continued to remain locked.
Irritated, Trace lost his temper for a moment on the lock for a few moments, but it continued to reject the stolen ID card. He stepped away from the door, putting the card away, and took a few moments to calm down and consider the problem. It seemed unlikely that the keycard had been blacklisted from the building's security systems already. That being unlikely, it seemed clear to him that this "Avee Aerie" was not authorized to visit the third floor. It sort of made sense to not let the regular employees reach the executive offices and whatever else was up there.
Which meant he would need a new ID card to get upstairs. It was possible someone had left their ID in their office, and it would let Trace get upstairs, but it seemed like it might take a bit of searching and luck for that to work.
… And yet…
> Never trust a janitor. Stun him instead and stuff him in his own closet.
… There was someone on this floor who probably had their ID card.
In his experience, janitors were usually given general building access, so they can reach anything that needs fixing or cleaning. There were no intercoms in the building through which one could request a door unlocked remotely, and only one guard, so that meant this aqualine had to have access to all floors to do his job properly.
Sure enough, the janitor had an ID hanging off his side. He was even distracted with his tablet again, and unlikely to notice Trace approaching. It was a perfect opportunity.
Trace could either just go for the ID on aqualine's waist, or try to engineer some some sort of distraction first. Perhaps he could find something to throw? That seemed like a lot of effort, but it might be a good idea to do it anyway…
However, using his stunner on the janitor and trying to stuff him somewhere was not a good idea. Aside from draining the suit's power it only lasted a minute and or two minute at best, and was intended for running away and making someone forget having noticed Trace in an emergency.
> Spend the effort to do the theft properly. Find something to distract him with.
>What you ideally want to do is cause some sort of janitorial disaster, something that'll distract him more then just his tablet.
Trace considered his options for a moment, then decided the best course of action would be to distract the janitor with something to do before swapping out his ID while he was busy. There wasn't enough time to just trail after him waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
And this glimneon liked to make his own luck, anyway. That in mind, he backtracked to the staircases, looking for some sort of easy opportunity. After some looking around, he finally came up with a workable plan…
> Swap it with the pass you have and he'll at least not notice until he tries to enter an area Avee's pass won't let him into. And even if he calls the guard at that point, they'll get caught up trying to explain why he had someone else's pass to begin with.
> This is an emergency - a fashion emergency. Yellow with purple? Eugh.
Swap IDs with him.
The aqualine soon rolled his cart over to investigate the sound, and stopped, frowning at the broken light in clear puzzlement. It wasn't unheard of for a light like that to short out and burst, but it was rather uncommon.
The janitor rubbed the back of his head and sighed, kneeling down and pulling something out from the base of his cart. He pressed the side of the yellow block, and it swiftly unfolded into a ladder that would let him reach the broken light bulb. As the aqualine climbed up the ladder to get a closer look at the broken light,
Trace grinned, slipping in behind him and to the side of the ladder.
The thief reached up to snag the ID, but found the janitor's waist to be somewhat out or of reach from his elevated position. He strained to reach it a few times, but after several failed attempts, it occurred to him that he could just climb up the other side of the ladder and grab it from there.
Snickering silently to himself, Trace carefully climbed up the janitor's ladder, making sure he didn't jostle it. He was about to reach for the ID, when the janitor moved his arm, and a dripping mass of nasty, nearly opaque mopwater lifted out of his nearby mop bucket, hovering in the air. The thief paused, considering the floating mopwater. He wondered, briefly, why the aqualine needed mopwater to change a light… he'd never seen someone replace a bulb with water.
Fortunately, Spume didn't keep him waiting for an answer.
"Ackplbbth!"
BATTLE START
> Oh no. How is the stealth suit? Is that okay or is it gone thanks to mop water?
> Shit! He knows you're there! Quick, take him out before he calls security!
—-
Trace has been spotted! Though is stealth suit is not damaged by water, the liquid clinging to him from the attack is outlining him and compromising his invisibility field! Until he manages to dry off, anyone can see the dirty mopwater outlining his body. It also got into his mouth, and the taste is revoltingly distracting.
Spume is looking right at him, and seems prepared for a bout! He is clearly a water elementalist, one of the more common traits for aqualine to have. If Rime were here, he could probably wipe the floor with this janitor, but for now, it's just up to Trace.
Battle Commands:
-Fight
-Parley
-Suit
-Item
-Flee
Status:
MOPWTR (Stealth–, Focus-)
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Backlog 4/Start!
> use one of your grenades. Temporal? That sounds useful. Blame the noise produced on his ladder falling over.
> Try a (quiet) Parley! Point out that he doesn't look super enthusiastic about his job and they probably don't pay well so maybe he can just let you go and give you a towel, please?
Trace is not going to use his grenades right now! He is not in sufficient danger to justify using such an expensive tool!
However, trying to talk his way out seemed like a reasonable first course of action. So he spoke up, trying to sound as friendly as possible. "Okay, listen. I can tell working here isn't your favorite thing, so how about we just walk our separate ways and I leave you be. Maybe after you tell me where the towels are?"
Spume stared at the thief for a moment, then raised his mop slightly with a snort, his deep voice amused. "Are you serious? Catching an invisible thief in the act is the most exciting thing that's happened since I started working here. If I apprehend you, I might even get a pay raise. Not a chance am I just going to let you walk off."
It sounds like this aqualine actually wants to capture Trace and is ready put up a fight. Fights are not Trace's specialty.
He could try to go in with the stun glove immediately, and catch them by surprise.
But it might not hurt to come up with a less head on approach to taking on the aqualine, just in case… after all, Spume did have what amounts to a crude quarterstaff in his hands.
> If grav mode is quick to activate and unexpected, you could move towards him, dash into a wall/ceiling in the last second and then jump into him again before he could react. Just don't stay close to the bucket of water.
The stun glove is a great option if its already charged. We could then swap cards and hope he thinks this encounter was just a cool hallucination.
> Grav swap
Trace decided he was going to have to be a little more clever about his attack than rushing straight for the aqualine, so took a moment activate his grav-walk function, and begin charging his stun glove.
He then used his suit to boost his jump, flipping upside down and clinging onto the ceiling. Spume saw him move due to the water residue on him, but it was clear he wasn't expecting him to leap onto the ceiling. Snickering quietly to himself for a moment at the aqualine's face, he leapt down towards the janitor, glove outstretched…
And was met with a mop to the face.
The mop smelled like filth and soap, and Spume must have been doing something with the water in it, because it immediately began wrapping around his face like some kind of horrible tentacled creature, pulling him in deeper into the mass of wet fabric, invading his mouth. The taste of mopwater in his mouth intensified, and Trace gagged, thrashing around wildly.
At some point during his thrashing, he smacked Spume on the nose, knocking off his hat. That evidently broke his concentration for whatever the aqualine was doing with the mop, because the fabric went slack, and Trace threw himself back and away from Spume. The mop clattered to the floor, and Trace spent a few moments trying to spit the horrible taste out of his mouth. He could feel little bits of dirt or worse clinging to his tongue.
This was the worst janitor ever.
>kick him in the nads
Trace was mad now, and as Spume leaned down to pick up the mop, he abandoned any pretense of fighting fair. He lunged forward, taking advantage of the momentary distraction to kick the aqualine between the legs with as much force as he could muster, before scooting back out of retaliation range.
The result was gratifying, and the janitor made a wheezing sort of pained sound, sinking to his knees, clutching his hands between his legs reflexively. Trace moved forward, priming his Stun Glove, and the aqualine opened his eyes to snarl something at the glimneon, but whatever it was, he never had a chance to say it.
The stun glove flashed right into Spume's eyes, and Trace watched his pupils contract as the lightshow did… whatever it was it was supposed to do. Raedia had told him once it overloaded the brain's optical nerves or something, but what was important to him was that it worked. The janitor stumbled back a few steps, eyes wide and confused, before he collapsed to the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Trace hoped when he woke up, it still hurt.
Either way, he wouldn't be needing that ID anymore. Maybe he had a wallet that could be liberated as victory spoils, too..
Meanwhile, not far away but somewhat higher up in the sky, the Aulazen vessel known as the Void Diver sat parked in the clouds. It was high enough that it stayed well out of the way of aerial traffic, but not nearly high enough to be within the range of satellite sensors arrays. The starship, wrapped in its own much more complex stealth field, had only two inhabitants at this time.
Raedia, a shkeel wanted herself for crimes on her homeworld involving theft of a starship and misappropriation of proprietary technology, was both the founder and current leader of an extralegal organization calling itself Moebius Acquisitions, whose members were collectively wanted for numerous charges of theft, infiltration, trespass, assault, and resisting arrest.
Despite being the leader of her band of acquisition specialists, Raedia did very little of the actual groundwork of her organization. She met with clients, of course, and often served as the face and voice of her little company, but in truth, her real strength was that she was a scientist, not a warrior or a thief. A very talented practical physicist, Raedia had a particular knack with gravitics. It was she who had invented the personal gravity manipulation technology that every member of her team utilized to enhance their performance in various ways. Raedia herself used several gravitic orbs that suspended a cloud of water around her and allowed her to move and breathe freely outside of the bodies of water that normally confined her people.
And yet, it was her detachment from the workings of the rest of her group that caused her to be working on a personal project inside her ship while Trace was busy with his shenanigans below. Because of this preoccupation, she was somewhat distracted when Arche suddenly called her up on the communications line, advising her of a snag in their operation.
"Raedia, I think we have a problem."
"Mmmmm?"
"It looks like Trace got into a fight with someone in the building."
"… I'm sorry?"
"He just had a fight with a janitor, I think. Looks like he won, and is dragging them off to stow them somewhere."
Raedia finally tore herself away from the project she was working on, annoyance bubbling up within her voice.
"… Why did he get into a fight? He's supposed to stay out of sight."
"I don't know, Raedia. I'm just reporting what I'm seeing from up here. It's a little hard to tell details from heat signatures viewed through a holoscope."
There was a deep sigh over the line as Rime suddenly spoke over the line.
"It's less than ten minutes in. Do I need to rescue him already?"
"I'm not sure, I think the Gorm security guard might have overheard their fight, he seems to be heading back upstairs now."
"Damn it, Trace."
"Raedia, should I warn him the guard is coming?"
"I should just go bail him out now, before he lands himself in custody."
"Come on, Rime. We just started, we can't end the mission already."
The two started to bicker, and Raedia's irritation rose. Trace was going to be in trouble very soon if she didn't make a decision. Having Arche guide Trace away from the danger would mean he might be able to finish his mission, but with a guard on alert, his chances of success were significantly reduced. But if she sent Rime in to rescue Trace, she was certain that the mission would be a failure entirely, even if it meant Trace would get away safely. They were a little tight on funds already, but they'd be even tighter if they lost Trace.
Why couldn't that Glimneon just stick to a plan for once?
>>Give Arche the go-ahead. No plan survives contact with the enemy, but occasionally a thief does.
>> Have a little faith. Sure, Trace is a loose cannon, but he knows what he's doing. Usually. Have Arche warn him.
>> Let Arche do his thing.
Back in the building, Trace finally finished dragging the unconscious janitor to the men's restroom, where he was out of the way. They weighed more than he did, and it was difficult work for the glimneon, who did not exercise much and mostly subsisted on a diet of junk food.
Once the janitor was stowed in the bathroom, Trace took a minute to have a breather and dry the mopwater off his suit. "I can't believe how much trouble one janitor has been." He glared down at the offending aqualine, suppressing the desire to kick him again. Either way, he turned towards the door to leave. "Now I can finally get back to wor-"
The voice of his team's overwatch, Redshift, came in through his headset. "Trace, the guard heard your fight and came upstairs, found the aqualine's stuff. He's going to come looking for them in a second."
Trace expelled a breath in frustration. "Aw, come on! I don't want to have to deal with a gorm, especially that one!" He'd only seen them for a few moments, but they had seemed really surly, which usually meant they would want to beat him up if they found him.
Redshift's reply was dry and unsympathetic. He must be annoyed that Trace had gotten into a fight. "Then you're going to have to either take the elevator or slip past him to the stairs, Trace."
Trace turned off his microphone and tried to decide which would be better. The guard would soon know someone was in the building due to the knocked out janitor, so the best he could hope for was to avoid being found by him.
If he could sneaking past him to the Stairs, it might take them a while to figure out where he was now, but they also might catch him, he didn't know if they had heat sensors or something, some gorm did, and those would see right through his stealth suit.
On the other hand, taking the Lift (and probably disable it afterwards) meant he would have some breathing room to avoid the guard without having to sneak past him, but they would almost certainly hear the lift and know someone had used it, and would soon come up the stairs after him.
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- Location
- St. Petersburg