[locked to Legionnaires] Meta-plot (heh)

[steelandtemper]

[ooc: This is the kickoff for the Meta's escape player plot, so it's backdated to fall in the lull before the current plots. Participation in the recapture/rescue log is limited to people already signed up, but anyone can respond to this post.]

We've got a problem.

[It's Cortana's voice, but the video doesn't feature her. It's security camera footage. Some of the team will recognize it as Takron Galtos. Everyone will recognize it as not how things are supposed to be in any well-run facility, penal or otherwise, smoking holes in walls being against building codes generally.

The recording freezes and highlights a figure caught mid-stride in a dead run through the chaos. After a moment, the other objects, then the background, then the smoke obscuring the figure disappear from the frame (courtesy of the UNSC's finest data analysis software--you're welcome) leaving only the escapee.

The Meta.

Should Cortana have that footage? Probably not. Still, the Legion has a compelling interest in making sure the nastiest people in the galaxy stay locked up, and the Meta is kinda personal for quite a few of the team.]

Something interesting, though.

[Because super-powered jailbreaks aren't interesting to Cortana, apparently.

Back to the video, frozen again on a frame that doesn't look noteworthy, but it runs through a series of graphical transformations that emphasize what seems to be noise until overlaid on a grid, which Cortana then thoughtfully translates into human-readable format for the non-AIs in the audience: four rows by ten columns of numbers, all falling between 0 and 300.]

This sequence recurs throughout the recording at intervals corresponding to the first hundred prime numbers. It's the complete scoring record for the AI bowling league right up until we disbanded. Odds against a random occurrence are so high I'd expect to see the heat death of the universe first.

North, get your ass in gear.

Comments

[steelandtemper]

That idiot. I didn't see him on any of the security recordings, so as far as I know, he's still in his cell.

[And is less of a concern to her because he's not made of like nine traumatized AIs in a trench coat.]

The Meta is probably stable--in the technological sense--right now. That might change if they decide to start experimenting with local tech, but otherwise, the only bar to them going on indefinitely is psychological...which is a major bar, don't get me wrong.

[The are so crazy, America.]

[thedreamisdead]

Probably smarter than some of our teammates.

[Junkrat comes to mind. Also Grif. And Jason. And Wash.]

So. How'd the Meta get off the station? Some kind of teleporter? Hijacked a vessel? Launched himself into space with the organics put into hibernation until some well-meaning citizen comes to the rescue?

[steelandtemper]

Someone wised up and took down the surveillance systems, so that video I showed is almost everything I've got. I'm sorting through the prison's internal comms chatter, but it's mostly people asking each other what's going on.

[Organic eyewitnesses are the worst.]

[thedreamisdead]

What I wouldn't give for Psi Division or the interrogation cubes right now...

[Hm.]

How many humans are along his projected escape route? I'm assuming that there's speakers in there, so if there are, you can set up an ultrasonic range of [She rattles off a pretty precise range here. Slightly unethical, by UP standards, but it'd render them more suggestible.], with some subliminal messaging to shut up unless they saw something explicit, that might at least give us a direction to start in.

[She's assuming Cortana doesn't usually deal with interrogation tricks like that. She's probably wrong, but Cortana seems to lean more towards infiltration and tactics than this kind of thing.]

[steelandtemper]

Hmm. I'll bounce that to the copy of me on Takron Galtos. It's only been a few minutes so it's not like their security response is bad. They're just organic.

[Eh, she likes organics anyway. Some of them.]

The Meta's best bet is the T-gates and it might be too late to stop them there, but the armor's distinctive and they're not gonna blend in anywhere.

[thedreamisdead]

We're just cutting some of the fat out of the investigation, that's all.

[Like things involving ethical interrogation practices.]

Unless he hits up a Big and Tall store

[Or takes the time to get a hologram.]

[unrecovered]

Not entirely - he's got physical limitations. The power drain from running as many armor mods and AI as he does means his armor needs to be recharged pretty frequently. Maine was a fucking tank, but the Meta is still human. We killed him once, and that was just me and the Reds and Blues. It's doable.

[This is partly for Cortana's benefit and partly because Wash needs to wrap his mind around the fact that he has to fight the Meta again for about the seventh time. Give him a few minutes to come to terms with his increasingly shitty day.]

[steelandtemper]

[Cortana snorts.]

I'm not worried about the takedown, Washington. The Chief and I could handle them without backup.

[Does something count as cocky if it's true?]

I'm worried about the collateral.

[Cortana will sacrifice damn near anything if it's necessary and not bat a perfectly-simulated eyelash, but in this case, it's not necessary.]

[unrecovered]

[There's knowing that you're outclassed, and then there's having it rubbed in your face. Thanks, Cortana.]

Internal or external?

[Theta or anyone who might be within fifty yards of a brawl between a horror movie monster, a man-made titan, and their onboard supercomputers?]

[Private to Cortana]

For whatever it's worth, in my experience, killing a human doesn't usually kill the ride-along AI, even if they are a fragment. I know lethal measures are a last resort, but I've fought the Meta enough times to know he's a fucking horror movie monster. He keeps getting up when he shouldn't and when you least expect it.

[Let's double-tap before we get close enough to start removing AI chips, shall we]

[steelandtemper]

[She's actually terrible enough at people she didn't realize Wash was trying to psych himself up.]

Mostly bystanders. I can help Theta jump back to North's armor without needing a physical transfer, and then the gloves are off.

[private]

How well does he function without the AIs steering?

[unrecovered]

[Whereas Wash figured it was just Cortana being Cortana. Someone's kicking Wash's self-esteem in the teeth? Must be Tuesday.]

If you're worried about bystanders, you can always induce armor lock in the Meta's armor. The Fatal Five managed it with an external device. It could be overridden with a kill code, but I'm sure you could patch that.

[Private]

About as well as he does with them there, but without all the armor mods. Even without the AI, the Meta is still the Meta, and he'll keep trying to get his hands on whatever AI or armor mods he can.

[thedreamisdead]

Couldn't the Meta just turn off all of the armor's input ports as soon as they realized Cortana was around to shut off her access?

[unrecovered]

The device the Fatal Five used didn't require port access - they just slapped it on and that was that, and that was without a thorough understanding of the armor. Regardless of whether the Meta thinks to shut down its armor ports, Cortana can come up with something better.

So yes, he could, but it'd be like putting a band-aid on a knife wound.

[thedreamisdead]

Fool me once, etc. If the Meta was hit by something like that before, it's probably going to be even harder to trap them like that a second time. Especially if they're anticipating it now.

[private]

[steelandtemper]

[Look, the only person she reads flawlessly is the Chief, and that's because she spends a big chunk of her time literally wrapped around his brain.]

The UP might actually have the tech to repair the neurological damage. I doubt it would bring Maine back [and he seemed like an ass anyway] but there's a chance of turning the Meta into a functional, non-homicidal person.

[This is unusually nice for Cortana, but she realizes his current status is the AIs' fault.]

Or, I kick down the door on his implant and cook his brain the rest of the way to well-done.

[Annnnnd back to normal.]

Permafilter

[unrecovered]

[Excuse you, that ass was one of his best friends. Rude.]

Even if they repaired the damage, there's no guarantee that he'd be a functional human being again. He might keep the same personality and behavioral patterns he had after the AI were gone, and that's the last thing we need.

[Remove Sigma, and he still acts like Sigma is running the show. There's nothing left of Maine; what's the point of trying to keep a monstrous shadow alive?]

Honestly, if you can do it quickly, that might be a mercy. I'm pretty sure his last death was slow.

[prettycoolguy]

If the lab can fab one of those devices for us, I can stick him.

[ Because the Chief is sure he knows where this is going, and where this is going is rematch. ]

[unrecovered]

Go for it. Just be careful he doesn't rebound it on you.

[His boyfriend is fighting one of his exes. Remove the mass murder and staggering amount of psychological trauma and it could be a romantic comedy. In which someone will probably die.]

[Which is how most romcoms should end, really.]

[prettycoolguy]

I'm always careful.

[ The Chief says, with what is assuredly a straight face. ]

[steelandtemper]

Oh, there you are.

[North and America are fine but she likes riding with him the best.]

[thedreamisdead]

I could have taken him.

[Well. Maybe if it were JUST the Meta. But her actual takedown would've been more lethal than the Legion allowed for.]

[whyarewehere]

I don't think they have warthogs in the space future, Wash. We'll have to find something else to tie him to.

[ Grif? Be serious? Never. ]

[unrecovered]

I mean, if we wanted to tie him to a spaceship and drag him into a literal ice planet, I'm sure we could figure it out.

[Go big or go home, and right now going home doesn't seem to be an option.]

[steelandtemper]

I can fab up a Warthog.

[Anything to make Grif wrong.]

[whyarewehere]

Dibs.

[ Is anyone surprised by this development? Anyone? ]