10183/The Panacea Project: Astrix Innovations Investigation

From United Heroes MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The Panacea Project: Astrix Innovations Investigation
Date of Scene: 25 November 2019
Location: Aeon
Synopsis: The Legion finally discovers the true culprit behind their latest troubles....
Cast of Characters: Mon-El, Invisible Kid, Slipstream, Polar Boy, Cosmic Boy
Tinyplot: The Panacea Project


Mon-El has posed:
    So the next place on the list to investigate is Astrix Innovations' abandoned headquarters, which is located in the business district of Aeon's capital city.

    The building itself is an office and lab complex, five stories tall. Unlike the Wildlife Society though, this building is pretty nice, and looks newer. Glass sliding doors lead to the front atrium, and a loading dock opens out of the back.

    Despite all this, as Azeilia had mentioned, the place is very empty, and the doors have even been left unlocked. No security systems active, or anything. They must have -really- left in a hurry...

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "I really don't like this," Lyle says.  "Why should they have abandoned their offices so completely?  I mean, this is more than just trying to get out from under criminal charges.  I'm starting to wonder if Astrix and his people were under control too... or is that just my professional paranoia getting the better of me?"
    Lyle shrugs.  "Unfortunately, my professional paranoia is right more often than it is wrong...."

Slipstream has posed:
"I don't know, it definitely smells weird. What do you think about the lady? Do you think she's on the up and up or do you think she's playing us?" Drake says with a frown on his face as he heads into the room. "Azeilia seems sweet as sugar. Do you think she'd make herself sick on purpose to throw people off?"

Polar Boy has posed:
"Well," Brek chimes in, "I know that a warm smile tends to work much better than a cold shoulder." He clears his throat and squints, looking into the shadows. "Anyone got schematics of this place handy?"

Cosmic Boy has posed:
"Tighten up team. This smells wrong to me as well. With the big guns not in play, it is up to us to figure all this out." Rokk keeps an eye out for anything. "Invisible Kid, maybe stealth mode might be a good idea. Polar Boy, you are our eyes and ears. Drake..." A pause. "Not sure what hero name you should go by...keep your eyes open." Cos moves forward. "Looks like they left in a hurry."

Slipstream has posed:
Tapping Snowball on the head who is mounted to his shoulder harness, the little robot floats off and starts to swirl about the room as her eyes light up. She can get into hard to reach places of course. "Slipstream." Drake says to Cosmic Boy. "Or Dynamite I guess. At this point it doesn't matter. Brainy calls me that." He blurs forward in a zip of blue light, moving about the room in quick jaunts as he scopes the place out.

Mon-El has posed:
    Indeed, it really does look like they left in a hurry. Doors are left open, unlocked, what have you. Near the elevator, there is a map of the building. According to that, just beyond the atrium is a series of offices and office cubicles on east side of the building, and on the other side, are the R&D labs. Then in the back, is manufacturing and receiving. It's like most companies though, and the offices of the CEO and other high-ranking people are fairly easy to pick out.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Yeah, while we were /en route/ to Aeon, they bugged out," Lyle says, fading out of sight.  "I'll see if there's an entrance from the roof -- chances are they wouldn't expect an entrance from that direction anyway."  With that, he zips upwards quickly and silently.  It's a pity no one can see him; it really is quite a graceful arc he makes up and over the parapet, to touch down on the roof just as silently.  No doubt there's some sort of accessway up here.

Polar Boy has posed:
Moving forward cautiously, Polar Boy crouches and puts one hand out before himself, lowering the ambient temperature out in a fan. He examines the map for a moment and begins toward the cubicle farm, the air around him not freezing but certainly becoming uncomfortable for most.

"I don't seem to see any visible evidence of breathing, yet," Brek says quietly through his comm. "The workers here /are/ from species that breathe, right?"

Mon-El has posed:
    Sure enough, there are a few sky windows on the top of the building. One of them leads to the lab, two into manufacturing, and one into the office area.

Mon-El has posed:
    Brek will find, that the reason there isn't evidence of breathing (other than he and his teammates) is because no one else is -here-. All the cubicles are empty. And even the nicer actual -room- offices are empty, too. Speaking of which, one of the corner offices--the biggest one--stands out among the others. And it has a name plate: "Stellaris, Astrix."

Slipstream has posed:
"I don't know how to operate space computers if we are going to dig through any of their technology, but if I see computers, you want me to take them and bring them back on the ship?" Drake asks as he zips from room to room, blinking in and out as he goes, taking a mental inventory of what he comes across.

Cosmic Boy has posed:
Cosmic Boy walks straight down the centre of the office and hallway. Opening himself up, he extends his senses out, just in case, so they are not surprised. Any metal or anything that could harm them, he would feel it. Watching as Slipstream and Invisible Kid do their jobs, and do them well, Cosmic Boy smiles, looking at Brek. "Yes, they all breath air Polar Boy. Great idea. Keep at it." The team works so well together.

"Where do we want to go first? IK, you have an access point for us up there? Want to head that way? We can head straight through the doors?" As they move in, Cos notes the name plate. "Guys. Check this out..."

Polar Boy has posed:
"Oh ... yeah, I guess super-senses can tell that easily enough," Polar Boy replies, with just a tone of embarrassment in his voice. "Thanks for confirming the theory."

The ambient air warms up as Brek stops chilling the space around himself.

"Hey!" he suddenly pipes up. "I think I found it."

Polar Boy opens up the door to the office of one O. Belix.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle drops himself into the lab, predictably enough.  That's where he's going to find the answers that make the most sense to him, anyway.  Let's see what kinds of intellectual property goodies they left lying around -- as quickly as they left, they can't possibly have taken enough time to secure their information.
    Well, not enough time to secure it against a galaxy-class spy.

Mon-El has posed:
    The lab does look like it was designed to do small-scale nanoparticle manufacturing and development, with several reservoirs lining the back wall that must have been used to hold that odd viscous solution the nanites had previously been living in. They are, however, empty. It seems that though he had left in a hurry, Astrix had made it a point to take his inventions with him.

    At the center of the room though, is a mainframe computer that still seems to be operational as if this were just another day. LEDs pulsate up and down it, and it is surrounded by holopanel displays. Although doors had been left unlocked, it seems at least that has some security on it...

    Nothing that a galaxy-class spy couldn't hack through, though.

Cosmic Boy has posed:
"Polar Boy. Over here." Cosmic Boy says, waving Brek towards them. Moving into the office, where Lyle was already waiting, Cos looks around, just in case. "Looks pretty straight forward. Whoever left, left in a hurry. Lyle, you are the detective here. And hacker. What do you think?" Turning back, Cos adds, "Slipstream...have you seen anything else in your search?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Don't know yet, Cos.  I'm going to see if I can break into their main computer system... oh, who am I kidding?  I'm *going* to break into their main computer system," Lyle says, audibly suppressing a snicker.  "The labs are otherwise cleared out -- unknown if that's the doing of the nanites, or the sentients."

Slipstream has posed:
"Nope! Nothing on my end. Just going room by room and trying to see if anything looks weird." Drake says through the comms as he blurs from one place to the other with his speed jaunts. "Anywhere you guys want me to focus on once I finish my route?"

Polar Boy has posed:
"Right, right," Polar Boy says, returning from the other office. "I was just being thorough." He coughs.

"So what do we have here? And, for that matter," he adds, "how much of a window do we have to make productive use of it?"

Brek glances from the corner of his eye to Cosmic Boy. "I work best when we're seconds away from disaster."

Mon-El has posed:
    Astrix's office seems fairly typical to whoever would enter. Desk, workstation, mostly clean although there are some papers and folders scattered about. On the walls are some awards with Astrix's name on them, as well as a number of photos. It seems Astrix -was- indeed rather young, as Azeilia had said. There is a picture of him with his family--which seems to be a very large one. Azeilia is there, too. Him with various different groups of colleagues.

    As Brek comes into the office per Rokk's request, he'd accidentally scuff something on the floor. Looks like a hardcover notebook, one of those nicer ones with a binding.

Cosmic Boy has posed:
"Good plan IK. Go to it." Cos looks around the office. "Okay then SS, keep at it. I'd back up Invisible Kid when you are done, just in case." Cos says over comms. Noting that look in Brek's eyes, Cos smiles. "I know. You are cold like that." So Cos tried to make a joke. It didn't work. "What is that?" Cos points to the notebook Brek found.

Polar Boy has posed:
Raising an eyebrow Brek extends his icy arm toward the ground, and it extends until he can pick up the notebook without bending over. Then, his arm retracts to a normal length, and he hands the book to Cos.

"Looks like notes to me," Polar Boy says.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle keeps banging away on the computer until it surrenders.  "Looks like the nanites in the lab were just let out of their containers.  Or were never sealed in.  Or controlled the lab techs into letting them out.  Insufficient data to know which is more likely.  Whatever the case was, they didn't break out like they did from the cruiser's lab.  And I can't say I like that."

Cosmic Boy has posed:
Looking at Brek, Cos nods. "Yeah...hmmm." As Lyle fills them in, Cos says, "I understand IK. Interesting. So where do we go from here then?" Rokk frowns, and keeps SS updated as well. "So then, do we have everything we need from this spot then? I feel like something is missing."

Slipstream has posed:
As he finishes his rounds, Drake strides into the room with Brek and Rokk. "So, place is empty, I took inventory of anything interesting I found. Probably about twenty computers ran by drones. Nothing too exciting. What'd you guys find so far?"

Mon-El has posed:
    It'll take some time, but Lyle won't have too much trouble getting into the system. It seems that this was where the core program for what Astrix called 'The Panacea Project' lived. From what he can tell of the code, it was designed to monitor and control the nanomachines even across vast distances. And as he'd previously thought, the original intent for these things was to be some kind of cure-all for organics. But, it seems nothing is connected to this particular server any more, it's just sort of running by itself.

    If Rokk and Brek take a look at the book, it seems to be a ledger full of transactions listed by date. Yes, seriously. It seems Astrix had been in such a hurry, that he'd carelessly dropped this on the floor on his way out. Well he -was- young. Anyway, the largest and most notable transaction recently seems to be the purchase of an orbital factory in a neighboring system, that was equipped to handle the manufacture of nanoscale materials.

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Uh huh," says Lyle, reading the screen.  "Cos, I'm going to try a longshot here.  I think this computer was meant to control the nanites at range, but it's not doing it right now.  Gonna see if I can take control of the little monsters.  If not, we're no further behind than we were before.  If so, jackpot.  If nothing else, I might be able to get a programming manual out of this thing.  I'd say wish me luck, but I don't believe in luck."

Cosmic Boy has posed:
"Copy that IK. Go ahead. Good luck and great work. We have a ledger here with a few interesting tidbits that Polar Boy found. Transactions, dates, stuff like that. We'll bring it along." Cos nods to Brek, and then adds, "Slipstream." Rokk says as the man joins them in the office. "We have some good information here." Cos nods to Brek, who did the hard work finding the book. "We're going to check a few more things, and wait for IK's hacking to be a success, then heading out. Great work team, especially you Slipstream! Welcome to the team!"

Slipstream has posed:
"Thanks man. I didn't really do anything but get my leg day in." Drake says with a laugh as he rubs the back of his neck. "I did unplug all twenty computers and set them up front so that we carry them on the ship for data extraction though if need be. I know that much at least. What else do you need me to do?" He asks as he is joined by Snowball who floats down to settle on his shoulder.

Mon-El has posed:
    Unfortunately, Lyle will hit a dead end with trying to use the current program to take control of the nanites. Worth a shot, though. But he does find some video logs on the system, and now that he has hacked through the security, it would simply be a matter of opening them up...

Polar Boy has posed:
"Yeah, I'm a real gumshoe," Brek says dryly. "But I guess what matters is that we found information we can use. Now we just need to use it!"

He folds his arms across his chest. "So, what now, fearless leader? Just hang out while the tech pilots surf the data-waves?"

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle makes a frustrated noise in the back of his throat, that he may or may not have broadcast.  Hopefully not, he has a reputation to maintain.  "Sorry, team, no remote control of the critters from here.  So much for getting an undeservedly easy fix.  I might have found some useful background data, though," he adds optimistically, and brings up the first video.

Mon-El has posed:
Log 1.......

    Astrix can be seen on camera, sitting at what is probably one of the lab benches in here. Yeah, he's definitely young. Like probably no more than fifteen or sixteen. He looks excited and bright-eyed. "Okay! Astrix here. So, 'Project Panacea'! This is gonna change -everything-. No more disease, no more disabilities, and maybe even... no more death! Just...gotta convince Public Health to let me do some clinical trials. Anyway, gotta go. More testing!"

.................

    NEXT=>

Cosmic Boy has posed:
Heads to watch the videos with Lyle in the lab, without looking back at where they had come from. "Thanks IK. We're on our way." Nodding to SS and PB, Cos says, "Gumshoe. That you are Polar Boy. Ok. Let's go see what he has in the lab."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    Lyle clicks 'NEXT', of course.  Interesting.  Let's see how much of a genius or a fool Astrix is...

Slipstream has posed:
As he follows after the others to watch the videos, Drake squints his eyes and says, "He doesn't come off as a bad guy here."

Cosmic Boy has posed:
Cosmic Boy walks towards the lab, and enters, looking at the screen as Invisible Kid moves the screen forward. "Find anything interesting? He says, looking over Lyle's shoulder.

Mon-El has posed:
Log 2.......

    Astrix is on camera again, in the same spot. Though this time he looks kind of frustrated. "Ugh, I can't get them to understand how -important- this is?! Like they don't -get- it." he sighs, running a hand through his hair. "There -has- to be a way. I'll come up with something, I will. Maybe if Aeon won't buy into it, someone -else- out there in the galaxy will."

Log 3.......

    Astrix again, this time looking somewhat pensive. "Azeilia called today. Wants to save the ice dragon elementals...maybe I can get her to test 'em for me. She's desperate." his eyes brighten. "I know, if I can get them into her systems, she'll get them into the elemental. Then I can make it go berserk or something, but the 'bots will save them. -Then- the world will see what they can do!" Back to being excited. "Foolproof."

Log 4.......

    "Plan didn't work -exactly- as planned, because she asked some hero types to play bodyguard, pff." Eyeroll. "These guys are interesting though. Apparently they're from the future. She gave them a sample of my nanotech...so looking forward to poking around a bit on their ship as soon as they start trying to run analyses." Wink and grin.

Log 5.......

    Last video, and this time, Astrix looks...very distraught, and absolutely terrified. "So...I...uh..." he stammers, trembling. "I was poking around, in this 'Legion's' ship systems, or so they apparently call themselves. And I came across some kind of cyber-quarantine, wasn't sure what it was...again I was just curious! I peeked at what they were hiding, and-and..." he gulps.

    "...I think, it's some kind of super-advanced AI, maybe even advanced enough to be sentient...it was amazing, and terrifying...I didn't mean to let it out, I swear!"

    He puts his face closer to the camera, looking desperate. "Legionnaires, if you're watching this, please, I'm telling you I did -not- mean to let it out, I -thought- I could peek without messing anything up, but it--it..." he shakes his head, pulling away again. "...it seized control of my nanomachines and locked me out. I-I-I'm sorry....this is all my f-fault..." He glances about nervously. "Oh gods...it's coming after me, I-I just know it! I-it--it--it calls itself...

"'C.O.M.P.U.T.O'...."

    "Ihavetogo. I have to go -now-. I'll start over, somewhere else. Somewher---" ZZzzzt. The video ends abruptly, static dancing across the screen until it just blips to blackness.

Mon-El has posed:
    A minute or two after the last video ends, if anyone is tuned to the cruiser's systems, alarms suddenly start to blare. There has been an intrusion--someone unauthorized just accessed the lighting and stasis field controls in medical, and opened an airlock....

Slipstream has posed:
".. Uh.." Drake says as he watches the screens. "... So... I'm...gonna move out and back into my apartment on Earth. That may be the most scariest Sci Fi movie I've seen in awhile, and it was on our ship?" He glances over to his teammates. "What the fuck is a COMPUTO and .. uh.. is this bad?"

".... that also sounds bad."

Invisible Kid has posed:
    "Oh, *SPROCK*!!" Lyle swears, violently, glancing at Cos with wide eyes.  He tries to sound calm when he addresses Drake.
    He fails.
    "COMPUTO is an AI that's... evil.  There's no sugar-coating it.  This is bad.  This is very bad.  Do me a favor, Cos, when we catch up with Astrix, don't let me kill him until he identifies the gap in our systems security that let him access our systems.  I promise I'll make it look like an accident so I don't have to get thrown off the team."
    This is the magical moment the alarms about the cruiser's systems start going off, and Lyle can't help but glance skyward.  "Lar... oh, grife.  Scratch that, Cos.  I'm going to kill Astrix and I don't care if you can trace it back to me.  This is all we need is a Daxamite being puppeted by sprocking COMPUTO...."

Cosmic Boy has posed:
"Yeah....sprock. Okay Invisible Kid, I'll remind you. No killing." Cos nods. "Let's wrap it up. Polar Boy, Slipstream, we need to go." Cos's eyes flash over at Lyle, then at Brek as the alarms sound. "COMPUTO..." As though that word was the answer to the issue at hand. Looking at Drake, Cos says, "It is bad...like IK says." Alarms. "We need to get out of here!"

Slipstream has posed:
"So, I'm starting to think I'm totally out of your guy's league here." Drake says as he back peddles a bit, then looks back to the others. "Last one on the ship gets left behind as a sacrifice!" He blinks out in a blue blip.