Break? Who needs a break?(Anna)

[~ ADMIN]

Anna linked her fingers with his and listened as they walked, nodding slowly.
"You know," she said, "I was beginning to think along the same lines. There was the guy on Delta Prime, on our first mission. He took a shot at me through the crowd. He was too quick and too agile to be just some regular guy off the street, and he knew the Jackson Corp building too well. We finally pinned him down on the roof, me and Katy Tyler, and I remember seeing this mark on the back of his neck, just under the hem of his shirt as we hauled him away. I didn't get a close enough look, but it could have been the same markings."
They began to make their way there, it wouldn't take long. "If they were using machines and large amounts of energy, someone would have picked it up by now..." she said, "unless they found some way to mask it. Somewhere where energy would be distorted. Near a black hole maybe?"

[togger]

Will looked at her with a raised eyebrow, responding:
"It takes MASSIVE amounts of energy for even the most powerful cruiser ship to jettison away from the outer reaches of a black hole. They would have to have never before heard of machinery that enabled them to stay out of the energy-consuming field that black holes produce." Almost there now. He continued:
"Although, I do recall hearing a thesis about utilizing the energy that a black hole produces in order to fuel a small colony on a planet. Apparently, someone had tried it once and it nearly got the researchers killed. So it's possible, but for terrorists to get their hands on that kind of stuff? Most of them want to overthrow dictators with simple weaponry and high tech armor, not actually use any science." The Alliance base on New Earth blended in well with the surroundings: it looked almost like a regular office building. He led her inside.

"Glad to see you two could make it." Corver shook hands with both of them at the main entrance, leading them down a narrow hallway that had branches shooting all over the place. It looked like a maze.
"We have some new developments on the rifts, as I've already told Blake here." He inserted a small key card into a reader at the end of the hall, which opened up into what looked like the conference room...or one of many. A solid metal table stood in the center with twelve chairs on either side, an AI standing in the center.
"Welcome, General Corver."
"Start up images."
"With pleasure."

What they saw would shock them.

[~ ADMIN]

"But you're basing that assumption on all the terrorist activity that we've seen before," she said, "it's entirely possible for this to change. As time goes on and technology advances, so can people. The word extreme is becoming ever more emphasised. If they really wanted to get attention, then this would definitely be the way to do it."
It was at this point that they reached the building. Once the pleasantries were over and done with, they got to what they were really here for.

The rifts were getting bigger, and that was an understatement. The pictures they were seeing were from a rift that had opened through the centre of an entire planet. It had caused massive amounts of volcanic activity, destroying cities with lava, pyroclastic flows, mass carbon dioxide emissions, and thrown tonnes of ash into the atmosphere - the sky was nearly almost black across the whole planet. Anna could barely believe what she was seeing. The terrorists attacks must have been distractions, so that they could do this...
She was speechless.
Drawing her hand up to her mouth, she closed her eyes for a moment after seeing some pictures of the bodies that had been found on the surface. Charred and boiled, burnt or completely destroyed. A vast majority of the population had been killed.

[togger]

Will watched the pictures flash in grim silence, taking a seat after the slide show was over. His mouth was dry.
"Apparently, the Venia is out of contact at the moment, which worries me even more." Corver motioned for Anna to sit down as he continued:
"We've figured out that these attacks are not random: they are systematically placed in order to disrupt the most important planet in each sector."
"So...they must be able to be controlled then?"
"Yes. This is why I wanted you here: I need an explanation as to how one of these rifts could be purposely planted."
"General, it's IMPOSSIBLE for these things to be controlled, much less created!"
"Then how can you explain the efficiency of these attacks? These are obviously terrorist related. Terrorists who have major equipment. You need to find out how these things are controlled and fast." Corver turned to Anna, continuing:
"McAdams, you and your tactical officers need to figure out a profile for these people: a list of suspects, locations, planet names, shoe sizes, everything. Once you have that list, I authorize you to use whatever force necessary to bring them in for questioning." Corver paused, his tone softening as he added:
"We don't know what's happened to the Venia. You two have to stay here until we figure out what's going on."
"Can we at least start working?" Will asked, eager to start the task at hand. This was going to be a challenge he wanted to meet.
"We have labs underground on the other side of the building. McAdams, our tactical division is here, so meet with Corporal James Unas on the third floor. I'll get you both authorized. Wait here." Corver walked out of the room, Will turning to look at Anna, saying:
"Babe? You ok?"

[~ ADMIN]

Anna had seen some pretty horrendous things in her time, been on training missions to some of the most poverty stricken places in the galaxy, seen a man get shot right before her eyes in a training exercise (the idiot got in the way of live rounds going off and lost his life instantly), but this... the pictures she was seeing of these dead people was making her stomach churn.
She managed to keep everything in until the corporal left the room, but when Will asked her what was wrong, she merely shook her head, banging through the door into the nearest bathroom before sticking her head in the toilet to throw up.
Anna had never had a reaction like that before - usually she was strong and mustered on through, but today...
Once she was sure her stomach had settled - there wasn't much for it to get rid of - she sat with her back to the wall of the toilet cubicle and buried her head in her hands, the images still flashing through her mind. Who would do that to those people? It was horrific.

[togger]

Will laughed slightly, saying as she left:
"Apparently not." She looked extremely shaken up by the pictures, which surprised him, seeing as he took her as one of those types that wouldn't flinch at that kind of material. Will had no idea where she had gone, so he decided to wait for her. A few moments later, Corver walked back inside, asking:
"Where's Mcadams?"
"She's taking five." Corver scowled slightly, pausing a moment before saying:
"I've got a shuttle out front waiting to take you to the labs. I'd suggest you get moving."

[~ ADMIN]

After splashing water on her face, and using a breath mint from the dispensing machine, she slapped her face with her hands, heading back through to the conference room. Corver was waiting there when she got back, not looking too amused.
"Sorry, sir," she said, clearing her throat which was sore from... well, you know. "Just needed the bathroom." She glanced at Will, before looking back at Corver. He was staring at her.
"Oh, I'll get going," then to Will, she said, "I'll see you later." She spun on her heel and headed back out of the room.

The transporter had her up on the third floor in no time, where she was greeted by Corporal Unas. It took her a moment to remember to salute, and he did the same.
"Sergeant," he began, taking Anna by surprise. That was right - they had promoted her before going on board the Venia, "we're here to help you with whatever you need, sir."
"Great," she replied, "let's get started as soon as possible."
They walked into the room, and Anna found several men working at holographic screens, bringing up all sorts of information and pictures of the most recent attacks, reports as well from officers. She just spotted one of her from the co-pilot's report on board the Oceanic.
"We have reports on all the attacks, as well as access to the government and security agencies databases of criminals and terrorits. We need to know where to look, what we're looking for."
"First," Anna said, walking over to the giant main console in the centre of the room, "we need to look up a woman named Jonea. She was the terrorist in charge on the Oceanic. If we can find her, we can look up all of her known associates, and start from there."

[togger]

Will gave a mini salute to Anna as she walked out, Corver asking:
"Anything wrong with her?"
"A few things." Will rose, now walking out of the room himself.

The shuttle was equipped with high powered jets, which it needed to traverse the quite turbulent winds up above New Earth's surface. The pilot was quiet, which suited Will just fine, seeing as the pilot had given him a few holo's to read over. One of them was the thesis that Will had heard right before he had presented his own thesis to the board over in England. He flipped through the holographic pages, skimming over the details.
"Where's the point, you buffoon?" He muttered quietly. Talk of reactors in the past, inefficient energy use. That's not..." Before long, they touched down on a grassy plane that was a few miles outside the main hub. Directly in line of sight was the facility: it was gigantic! The steely gray facade of the building extended up almost endlessly into the sky. Will guessed the width of the facility was easily half a mile to a mile long. Easily.

Stepping out of the shuttle, he was greeted by a man with shoulder length hair and an impeccable smile.
"You must be Will! I'm Doctor Lionel, head of the facility."
"Pleasure." He could tell that Lionel was one of those non-grooming scientist types.

Great.

As they walked to the facility entrance, Lionel asked:
"So Will, this your first time on New Earth?"
"Yeah."
"Beautiful place, huh?"
"Listen, Doctor Lionel, I'm here for a job. Just tell me where I can work." Doctor Lionel was taken back by Will's frankness, but just smiled and said:
"You got it. Will you need help?"
"Three assistants who have a brain. Preferably with an intelligence quotient that exceeds that of a monkey, which is rare in assistants. I also need access to every single flux reactor you have. We'll be conducting some powerful experiments."
"So I've heard."

[~ ADMIN]

(That post made me laugh so much xD I shouldn't find Will being insulting this funny.)

Anna looked around the room while the necessary information was being pulled up. unas was your stereotypical army guy. He was in uniform, probably had been since the day he entered the armed forces. He was a decent height, maybe 5'10, so a little shorter than her, and of decent build. There was probably a fair amount of muscle underneath all that cloth. This hat covered his close shaven hair. The rest of the people in the room looked to be analyists wearing overalls. They came in various shapes and sizes but nearly all looked pale - like they hardly ever saw the light of day.
Finally, the data appeared on the main screen. Anna read Jonea's file first - she had a rough background, her home town was destroyed to make way for a new UGAP facility, a few disorderly, dishonourable discharge from the armed forces. Then she started sifting through the files of the people connected with her. There were a lot to go through from hackers to arms dealers, names she'd heard of to relatively unknowns.

"Sir?"
"Hmm?"
"You might want to take a look at this one."

Unas tossed the file across the screen to her with a flick of his index finger. As it slid in front of her, Anna read the name on the top. Henry Reid, one of the most wanted terrorists known to human kind. He'd been flagged as having a couple of meetings with Jonea, one only a month ago. "Oh, that's not good," she said, immediately getting the computer to pull up all recent activity linked to Reid - there wasn't a lot. He'd been quiet, he'd been working on something. But what?

[togger]

(I try my best to make Will as much of a jerk as possible at certain times, especially when he starts dealing with engineering stuff)

His assistants were, as he predicted, not as as smart as he wanted them to be, except for one: a very young girl by the name of Laina. The girl was only seventeen, but apparently she had graduated high school when she was twelve, college at sixteen. She was the only one that seemed able enough to handle what he needed. The other two...well, he would use them for grunt work: getting the flux reactors up and running(which they now were), making sure the simulation engine was up to maximum power, and of course, getting him some tea. That was important.

Lionel had given Blake full access to anything he needed, which of course, Blake had expected. He was now sitting at one of the various consoles that lined the spacious lab he had been put in.
"Doctor Blake?" Laina approached Will's chair, holding a small holocube.
"What is it?"
"I found something on the use of powering machinery by utilizing black hole energy."
"Just like everyone else. What's the point?"
"It's possible."
"I've heard that one before."
"No...it's being done. Right now."

What?

[~ ADMIN]

Anna's file scouring was interrupted by a window flashing up on her screen, a message from command that a new rift was opening right at this moment on one of the out lying planets, Helio. Why would someone be opening a rift there? There were only small settlements on that planet, no cities, no large scale damage.
She pressed her fingers to her ear, figuring her comms would still work, "Will, are you getting this?" she asked. Some of the people looked confused for a moment, wondering who she was addressing, then soon figured it out, "there's a new rift opening on Helio."
Anna scanned for satellites in the area, pulling up a live feed from one of them, before pulling each corner of the screen out, enlarging it and zooming in, locating the rift. "Will?"

[togger]

Laina had been in the middle of her explanation when Will got the call from Anna.
"What? What is it?" He looked back at the computer screen, and to his surprise...another rift. But, it was in Helio? What was in Helio except...

"Laina, nearest large energy signature near Helio."
"On it."
"Do me a favor, Anna: Scan for any ships in a...thirty mile radius of where the rift is opening. I think we may be able to figure out where some of these rifts are coming from." Will had an idea of why Helio was being torn apart by the rift, but would reserve it until he got all the facts. If he was right, this attack might be a signal.

(Ack! So short )

[~ ADMIN]

(Awwww!)

"Already on it," she said, pushing the video window away before typing in the command to start the scan. Unas kept an eye on the rift.
"Sir, it's getting larger, it's nearly half the size of the planet."
"Scan faster, stupid probe," she muttered, aware that Will could still hear her.
It beeped, and the scan result came up, "there's no visual," she said, "but the scanners have picked up a mass anomaly." She paused, "a cloaked ship perhaps? I'll scan for signals." This one didn't take as long. "There's a gamma ray beam being projected towards the planet," she said.
"What does that mean?" Unas asked, obviously not versed in science.
"It means that they're being bombarded with EM radiation - and that's not good."
Setting off a more detailed scan, she said, "Will, got what you need?"

[togger]

"EM radiation? How does this factor into...never mind. Yeah, I got what I need. Let me know if anything else happens." The comm switched off as Laina laid out a holographic projection on the top of his console.
"What is this?"
"A model of the system where is Helio is located. See that elongated beam?" Laina pointed towards the white streak that went across the system, pointed straight towards Helio.
"Your point?"
"My point, Doctor Blake, is that electro-magnetic beams wouldn't be out of the question for causing the rifts." Will sat back in his chair, his eyebrow raising upwards as he told Laina:
"Elaborate. Because the last time I checked, EM was outdated."
"Far from the truth. Electro-magnetic energy has actually grown in field size over the past two hundred years because of increased machinery use, increased population, and..."
"The fields that our ships produce, yes, yes, that's fantastic Laina, but how can anyone..."
"Storage tanks."
"Oh don't be a fool! You can't STORE electro-magnetic energy."
"Doctor Blake, how else could it be possible to cause rifts like this? It has to be stored EM energy. There have to be some kind of tank that produces enough counter energy to ensure the stored energy doesn't disperse randomly." Will was silent for a moment. She was right. He dialed into Annabelle's comm, saying:
"Anna, we have an idea..." Will explained Laina's theory as quickly as he could. Once he was finished explaining, he continued:
"If this is true, we need to get to the source of that EM beam. Might be able to find some answers at the source."

[~ ADMIN]

Anna was watching several screens at once; the one with the rift, the one with the scans for the ship, and the ones with the scans for the beam. Information was flashing up on the screen rapidly, and Anna was committing as much of it to memory as she possibly could while Will was busy doing whatever he was doing.
"Do you still think this is man-made, sir?" Unas asked, uncertain. He had to be 10 years her senior, and yet he was looking at her, anxious, wanting to know answers.
"For a beam to be directed like that, yes, it has to be."
"Can we stop it?"
"The beam, yes," she said, "if we can find the source. We can switch it off. But, the problem is, people are out there who can come up with this tech, and if we switch one off, more could just pop up in it's..."
She shut up when she heard Will address her again, listening to the theory. "As far as I can tell, the ship isn't the source," she said, setting up the scan to cover a wider field, "it's merely deflecting the beam from the source." How that was even possible, she didn't know.
"Tracking... tracking... aha!" she said, "found it, a base on an uncharted planet on the edge of the galaxy."
Pulling all of the data that she had collected across to a hand held computer. "We need a ship, something fast, we don't have a lot of time. And I need your best pilot to get us there."
"Yes sir."
"Will, get to the hangar bay, we'll pick you, and whoever else, up there in a few minutes."