Dark*Matter, Discovery: Pushing for Impeachment

[Falkus]

Sometime in February
Eight AM, the Hoffmann Institute offices

A month had gone by since the Russian mission. According to reports, Carol was recovering nicely, and no longer given to prophetic visions, putting her firmly in the realm of normalcy. Meanwhile, you had your assignments, investigating odd events, covering up the paranormal, reassuring the population. Maintaining the status quo. You were all promoted to Security Clearance level 5, and given even greater access to the Institute’s files.

The call came in early in the day in the form of a text message on your pagers and cell phones. Emergency situation, get in immediately. You’d never got that one before, something big must be happening.

You arrived at about the same time, around seven AM, and entered the office together. An alarm light was flashing on the ceiling, bathing the front office in a dim, red glow. Oddly, the receptionist and security that’s usually present are nowhere to be seen.

 

[Friadoc]

"Now this can't be good," says Cade as he looks around the red-light bathed front office. "Keep your eyes peeled, folks."

As he makes his way toward the front desk, Cade unholsters his sidearm before moving to check the computer at the receptionists desk. He'll log into the network and check for the most recent logs and alerts, including visitors or deliveries.

 

[Falkus]

As Cade moved behind the desk, he uncovered a grisly sight. Forge, the usual secretary, was lying dead under the desk, with the corpses of two Institute security officers tucked in there with her. Each had been killed by a knife to the forehead, buried in up to their hilts.

The network seemed to be down. The only thing that the screen displayed was 'He Comes'.

 

[Friadoc]

Cade's pause is brief, but the look on his face is strong, a mix of anger and grief.

"Frak," says Cade as he looks up to Team Libra. "We've three casualties, folks, it looks like a nasty break of some kind."

Moving out of the way, so as to make room for Nick or one of the others, Cade takes out his PDA and gets it up and running. Once it is up, he'll do a motion sweep of the area and then check to see if he can reach outside access to OSIRS via the PDA.

"We're gonna have to do this by the numbers," says Cade. "Group movements, either together or in two and three person teams, stay in touch and clear the building, floor by floor."

 

[iwatt]

His head still hurt! Ever since the fight with the ephemeral he hadn't been able to shake the ache behind his eyes. The medics all said there was nothing wrong with him, that it probably was just stress. Right, cause surviving and saving the day was so stressful. He had a nagging suspicion that it was the watch, that it was calling him to push himself harder, but he ignored it. He hated training. He'd made it so far by been a slacker, he wasn't about to change a winning formula now.

He shook his head, trying to clear it as he stepped into the office. Of course Joker would be there before everybody, but the joke on his lips died off as he registered the gunman's expression. "Ah crap!" He drew the desert eagle from it's holster, the reassuring weight a balm on his nerves. "Two teams boss. You take Diego, and I'll stick right behind Meredith and the Doc." An idea struck him, and he moved to the corpses, drawing one of the knives out. Focusing inward, he tried to learn who the owner of the knife had been. "Give a minute to do my thing. Any intel is worth it. Can you get the systems up, Joker?"

[sblock] From the description, it would seem the knives are still lodged in their skulls. If not, I'll do the Object Reading on the computer instead.[/sblock]

 

[kinem]

For once Diego is right on time with the others. Ah, this is sure to be a good day! he thought.

Then he was shocked to see the carnage.

"Damn it!" Diego whispers, drawing his Glock.

Staying close to Cade he asks "See anything on that scanner?"

 

[Falkus]

Larry touched the knife, and tried to read it. He saw a humanoid figure suddenly appear before him, driving a knife into his arms, his chest, his throat while a high pitched, unearthly scream! When he blinked, it was gone.

Cade got the motion sensor up and running, but it didn't seem to be displaying properly. It showed the Institute just fine, but the team wasn't on it. Instead, it showed a single dot entering the front door. Two other dots, presumably representing the security personnel, moved towards it. And then they stopped moving. A minute later, the dot moved into access corridor one. A dozen dots from the interior of the building were already moving towards it in response to the intrusion. They reached the hall. And then they stopped moving.

The display on the PDA then vanished, only displaying the words 'He Is Here'. Not even turning it off could get them to go away.

 

[Shayuri]

Meredith draws her sword and gets her shield in position.

"What does that mean, 'he is here?'" she demands. "And how could anyone, or even anything, do this? Hoffman is one of the best defended places on Earth!"

 

[industrygothica]

Meredith draws her sword and gets her shield in position.

"What does that mean, 'he is here?'" she demands. "And how could anyone, or even anything, do this? Hoffman is one of the best defended places on Earth!"

"Not anymore," Nick says bleakly.

 

[Falkus]

As the team waited, they suddenly heard a series of gunshots from down access corridor one, in the direction of the briefing room, followed almost immediately by a loud scream.