"Hold up!" A noise from above her sounded, illuminating the darkness she was in for a moment. A silver string holding something floated down. Once it hit the floor with a soft clank, a light flicked on, casting Brooklyn in a bright white light before it dimmed slightly and her eyes got used to it. "It's dangerous to go alone. Take DT. She'll help out and map the area as well. Good luck." The little robot looked at her, a couple small beeps played in her ear, the AI within it recognizing the danger of making too much sound. She sounded off that she was ready and nodded her "head", the Gatling barrels jerking up and down with excitement. "Also, she's speaking in morse code. Hope you remember that from boot camp."

The other three upstairs made their way outside of the building after checking themselves for wounds and making sure that they were ready. They split up, checking all around the building for some type of entrance into the lower area where Brooklyn was, but could find nothing. Not even a hint to where an exit could be. "It seems that the area you fell in might be an older building or tunnel system. We can't find anything up here, no manhole covers, no doors leading downwards, nothing. We'll keep looking, but we're very close to Galen's tower now. If anybody has a map of the underground systems and entrances and exits, it'll be him."

Just then, Sebastian turned to the others only duck as a red projectile sped in front of his skull. "GET DOWN." The group split for a second, going for cover. They were about half a mile from the tower and they were taking fire?! "Sniper, definitely. Probably posted in the tower. That explains what happened to Galen. Come on." Anna and Gabe were hesitant at first, but both nodded and they stood, running with Sebastian as he dashed forward, diving from run down building to rubble to piece of metal. More sniper shots impacted the ground, aimed mostly for Sebastian. Anna and Gabe had very little trouble, but Sebastian was constantly under fire. They got closer to the tower and took cover behind a large destroyed wall together. In front of them was a considerable gate, large laser turrets posted on each collumn that ran along the gate, hundreds of old decaying bodies were around, many were almost ancient, bones and dust littering the field. They were just outside their range, but there was no way they'd be able to get past the perimeter. Sebastian sat down against the wall, placing his hand against the forehead of his helmet, thinking. "Alright, I have no clue how to get in there. Those Turrets are impregnable and I doubt Galen can hear me from in there." Anna turned towards him, kneeling, her hand on the wall. Gabe stood at the edge and peeked out for a moment, but nearly got his head blown off as a sniper round destroyed the spot on the wall where his head was. "How do you know the Turrets are impassible? Perhaps they are like the old versions, have to strafe to get past." "No...um...Brooklyn designed these ones, if you get the chance to poke out without getting killed, you'll see her mark. They're top of the line. I should know, I installed them." "Just how long ago were you last here?" "I was here last year for the old man's birthday. I ended up leaving because his Assassin-protocol-droid had a nasty glitch and threw me out. Galen wanted to let me back in, but I said, and I quote "To hell with your droid, this is the last time he throws me out." By that point he had thrown me out fifty seven...wait, fifty nine times. He tried to plead but...I sorta went off the handle and said "Fuck you!" And stormed off." "So...you had a temper tantrum?" "You try getting thrown out of your not-dad's house fifty nine times and keep from being royally pissed off." "Good point."

"That is a crock of lies, Sebastian! I threw you out because you tried to kill me in my sleep!"

"What..." Apparently the man inside could hear him quite well. He played his voice through a speakerphone from somewhere around the mansion. "Is your memory whack old man?!" "It's better than most things on this rock!" "Perhaps you got a little too close to that droid you love so much! He must have fried you with radiation!" "I Shower every day!" "You shower?! You're hooked up to a bed! You have to be sponged!" "And Forty-Seven does a damn good job!" Something wasn't right, his responses were...off. At least to Sebastian. "ANYWAYS...BullSHIT, Galen! Your Sev got pissed that I bought you a good gift and he threw me out!" "That is a crock of lies, Sebastian! I threw you out because you tried to kill me in my sleep!" "Waiiit a second...." "You noticed that too, Anna?" "Yeah, that was the same message. All his messages are pre-recorded. That sniper definitely isn't him and I'd place money on Galen having been killed." "Enough of your lies! Die now!" The turrets switched on then and the frontal ones all faced towards where Sebastian and Anna were sitting and opened fire. They hit the concrete wall but were doing little more than scorching it. "Yyyeah, that's the fatal flaw of Brook's design of that model. They were great anti-personnel and light armor piercers, but against anything more than heavy-gauge chain mail and they would be useless." "She really needs to up the anti on her weapons." "Oh man, you should have seen her mark sixes, WORK OF ART." He made sure that she heard that bit in the comms.

"We need to move though, Sebastian. The turrets are making a lot of noise." "There is a building inside the killzone we can run to." Gabe spoke up, standing by his post on the corner. Sebastian stood and came close, peering over the pony-man's shoulder and seeing the cover. "Excellent, and at this range the turrets can't hit for shit." He turned and grabbed Anna, slinging her over his shoulder. "Put me down! I can ru-" Before she could finish, Sebastian was out into the battlezone, running faster than normal and through the hail of bullets and lasers and taking refuge in a small building within the laser turret killzone. Gabe took a more careful approach, using the distraction to move from cover to cover. The sniper was still trying to shoot at him, but he didn't do much. He made it in after Anna finished chastising Sebastian and having checked the place for any ghouls that might have taken refuge here as well.

The turrets continued to wail on the building in a vain attempt to kill them, but they did little more than stir a ruckus and begin drawing in curious ghouls. Before long they were diverted to dealing with the ghouls and keeping them out of the killzone. They did a wonderful job. Sebastian picked his way through the building, it was an old home before the undercity stopped being habitable. He found an old chair and plopped down. Dust and dirt flew everywheres. Anna stood while Gabe sat on the ground and watched the light show outside.

"So...how do you know Galen Hek anyway?" "Now that's a long story...hold on...Brook, how are you doing? While you're down there exploring, you might find an active power substation or something, see if you can shut it off and we can get inside."

"Alright...so, Galen Hek. He used to be my squad commander back when I was in the army. Just before I became a prosthetic." "So...wait...he's older than you? How is that possible?" She sat down with Gabe now, watching Sebastian intently as he told his story. "The power of electronics are crazy, Anna. There are a few people that are well over two hundred years old. He's mostly digital now, being the sole person who managed to convert his consciousness over to the Digi-net but literally deleting the knowledge on how to do so from his memory after successfully doing it so people wouldn't pester him about it. He's the man that originally convinced me to go Pro...pro being the term back then to go prosthetic. It was back in the days of Esmerelda the 2nd. A.K.A. The Scarlet Queen...hah...I remember on a couple missions into the Tenau territory where Galen would just start chanting "Down. Down. Down with the Bloody Red Queen." and we'd all join in on the chant and end up making the Pilot threaten to turn the bird around if we didn't shut the fuck up...he's also the reason why I always drink a pint of Scarlet Rose Whiskey on June 15th. Hah...he really hated that bitch...good times." Anna and Gabe both glared at him at the disrespect to Queen Esmerelda. Obviously taking offense. "She was one of our greatest queens." "And was also a murderer that would torture IVTs live on camera. The day that my squad killed her-" 

"YOUR SQUAD WAS THE ONE THAT KILLED HER?!" She stood, enraged. She reached for Shalizar's spear, anger writhing in her, but Sebastian put up his hand. "Calm yourself, woman. Galen put the knife in her stomach and was the one to throw her off the clock tower. I wasn't there. The recovery process for going Pro is a minimum 5 months with an extra nine of training." She was reluctant, but she sat back down on the floor with Gabe. "A few years after that, Galen went pro as well, but did so only so he could leave the military quickly after as they "Bored him." And went into the underground. He traveled from place to place, getting in touch with super hackers and learning the trade, but then he started diving into the net using Virtual Reality headsets and spending weeks immersed in them. Every time he came out he went up a hundred or so IQ points and knew more about hacking and exploiting systems than anybody dreamed of knowing. About three years before Prosthetics became outlawed, he found me and approached me. He wanted me to be his assistant and bodyguard. Considering the rumors that surrounded him, I didn't object."

"He took me here, to the undercity. He used an old-now inaccessible-route to get into his mansion to get me there without going near the ghouls and he started to teach me the tools of the trade. It's why I'm so good at hacking. He explained that he wanted an apprentice because he had foreseen the downfall of the prosthetics. I was naturally naive and stupid and told him that Prosthetics were the future, but he just laughed. He showed me how to break Digi-codes and get into any security system, design security walls, and I eventually turned around and told him about a brilliant idea I dreamed up. Security Mazes. Multiple routes and connections that must be virtually accessed-diving into the net-into that would have defenses not unlike a fort. These defenses being viruses and redirects. He thought it was a brilliant idea and we collaborated on it, producing the Security maze that protects mine and Brooklyn's Digi-vaults."

"Wow...seems like he means a lot to you." Anna stretched, her bones starting to become stiff from the sitting and listening to Sebastian's story. She stood and crept to the window, there weren't anymore lasers or ghouls and they didn't turn to fire on her. She came back over and leaned against a post. "How long as the Digi-net been active?" "Too long. Nobody even remembers the original creator or the original hardware that was used to launch it. It's...amazing though." "How so?" "Will tell you later, for now, a little rest. My jaw hurts from not shutting up." He found a small lever on the chair and pulled it, the footstool on the inside still working and kicking his feet up so he could lean back a little and relax. "Can't do anything until we get confirmation from Brooklyn and DT." "Hope they're doing okay."