Run to Ground (Open/ ?Wesker?)

[samus]

So similar, and yet so different...... despite the relatively primitive technology, the civilization of Earth was so similar to the Federation's that Samus couldn't help but feel at home much more easily than she should have - if anything, it almost seemed like a throwback to the Federation's own past, before it the myriad species of her galaxy had made contact with the Chozo who had then led them into an era of relative peace and enlightenment. As it was she almost had believed that, at least until Adam had figured out where they actually were following the repair of her gunship as well as learning where they were - it was impossibly far from where they had thought themselves to be, but using her ship's instruments she had been able to see the very stars she had known growing up, albeit from a completely different perspective. At the very least it meant she no longer had to run, no longer had to hide - to her knowledge no one, not even the Chozo, had ventured this far away from Federation or Pirate territory, and as such she was relatively safe. No one knew her name or who she was, nor of what she had done, what she'd had to do to protect the very people who were very likely now fruitlessly searching for her back in their own galaxy.

That being said, though, she by no means intended to keep herself anonymous by any means - she still had things that she needed, both in terms of sustenance, shelter and equipment wise. Her Fusion Suit, while durable, was not her old Power Suit - it could self repair to a certain degree, but it still required much more maintenance, as did her ship, something she would not leave to anyone else lest certain more ambitious individuals start getting ideas. As such she'd begun putting her trademark skills as a Hunter to use, skills that apparently proved useful no matter where you were. As it was she'd already claimed a handful of bounties, but they had been small fry, not nearly worth the time nor effort needed to capture them, not if she wanted to stay independant. As a result she'd begun to look for bigger game, individuals that no one had either been able to find or bring in - part of the reason she'd been able to charge as much as she had back in the Federation was because there was a certain amount of prestige that had been attached to her name, both as a result of her deeds and her upbringing - a resume of sorts. Something that she did not yet have, but with any luck she would be well on her way to building should this next hunt go well.

Dressed in what seemed to amount to civilian clothing no matter the location nor era, Samus stood on the sidewalk corner, causually checking a small watch she had acquired as if waiting for someone while discreetly observing the building across the street from a safe distance. The target she had picked for her next hunt was a big one, alright - wanted in connection to illegal bioweapons development and testing as well as bioterrorism and countless other acts that were in direct violation of humanitarian and war laws, he had all but disappeared from the face of the earth save for the fact that the companies he had supposedly been either connected to or had been running before his disappearance had simply continued to operate as if nothing had changed. While most of the facilities had either been siezed by United Nations security forces or had simply been destroyed or otherwise wiped off of the map, the one oddity that stil remained was this building, in a city that had clearly been the site of the original incident involving the man, at least as far as she could tell. At the very least it was a starting point - if the building was still being run by the same people which, by all indications it still was, hopefully she could find another lead to her target inside. Grateful that the widebrimmed hat she wore concealed both her face and line of sight from anyone who might've been inside of the building, Samus began to walk one more circuit around the place, mingling with the crowd as she did so. She'd look around once more, and then find a way in.

[Albert Wesker]

Back, once again, in the place where it all started.... How quaint that he would be going there again so soon. It seemed that everything always eventually led back to Raccoon City eventually. He had been tied there for a number of years by his "employment" with Umbrella, and then for yet more time with his undercover work in the Arklay facility. Ah, the Arklay facility....it held such powerful memories for him. It was, after all, the place of his rebirth.

Such a shame it had been destroyed....

But like Raccoon City, it had also been rebuilt. And it now served its purpose as well, in the form of a special base of operations for his new "partner"; the good Doctor Jonathan Crane...Scarecrow. The facilities required for working on on the projects of the scale the madman worked onof even the most minor caliber were well above anything the good Doctor could get ahold of on his own, if his own information was correct. So even the lowly Arklay facility was more than enough to satisfy the exchange Wesker had made. And the unsuspecting Raccoon City -- so carefully reconstructed with a generous donations from a "sympathetic company" run by the man who had played a part in its destruction -- would serve as a valuable testing ground. It already had...."experience" with being a test dummy.

"I trust everything is satisfactory, Doctor Crane?" The call had come in just a few moments prior, and it had only been prudent to humor the good doctor. "Hmhmhm.....of course, of course. Enjoy your experiments, Doctor." And just like that, he hung up once more, immediately turning to begin his little excursion. It was rare he personally made such trips, but this one warranted it. The initial experiments on replicating the fear toxin provided by the generous Doctor Crane and implementing it into future BOWs had already begun; and he was going to personally overlook the first batch of them, as well as the quality of the replicated toxin.

As he left his personal "office", he again pulled out his phone. A single button press had the call sent, and almost immediately it was answered. "Have the beta subjects and the replication results ready. I shall arrive on-site...soon. That should give you ample time to prepare properly." After receiving an answer in the affirmative, Wesker ended the call and stowed his phone away once more. "Good help is so difficult to come by these days...." he murmured casually.

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"Was that him?"

"Yes. Sir Wesker will be coming to pay us a visit, as scheduled. He'll be here within three hours."

"Beta subjects ready for examination, as planned?"

"Of course. He also wants to personally review the Fear Toxin replication results. We need everything in order yesterday. You know how his patience can be."

With a hasty murmuring of approval, the crowd dispersed to go about carrying out the instructions. Wesker's direct agent in all this, the one who he had spoken to directly, could only sigh and pace toward the windows, looking out at the city, and the people in it. "This place....why bother to rebuild it?"

((OOC: I hope this will suffice; if not, let me know.))

[samus]

Completing her first discrete circuit around the building, Samus had to admit that the place was well built - while they were difficult to spot, there were a surprising amount of security measures in place, far more than a building serving as a simple biofirm lab would need. That, and the size of the place - while it certainly looked big from the outside, Samus could only imagine how much duct work and machinery displaced what would otherwise be usable space. As it stood, though, she could not find a way in, at least not with her first examination of the building's exterior, although it proved to be the case with both the second and third times as well. It kept coming down to the same problem - she did not want to tip her hand just yet. Prey was always easier to catch when the hunted were unaware of the hunter, and no matter what approach Samus took in trying to enter the building she would be discovered - either by one of the automated security systems or by someone seeing her go through a door. Even the Morph Ball wasn't an option - apart from there being no place to don her Fusion Suit without being noticed in some shape or form near the building, she was willing to bet that even the vents of the complex were watched. After her fourth circuit around the building Samus left for a nearby alley to take a quick break from trying to mentally crack the security - maybe a new perspective would help if she tried it from a different angle in a few minutes, but this certainly wasn't working. She could always simply observe the complex over a length of time in hopes of spotting either her target or someone who had been connected with the man in the past, but even that was a longshot - a surprising number of the people were dead or missing, and that method would be incredibly wasteful timewise. As Samus exited the alley onto a different street to blend with the crowd she stopped for a moment, pulling out something akin to a miniturized tablet computer and a phone from one of her large coat pockets as it momentarily vibrated. Holding it in one hand, Samus hoped that at the very least Adam had come up with something - he'd been the one to single out that building for her, and he'd told her that he would continue to look for anything out of the ordinary that might prove useful - a hope that soon proved justified.

Samus, I have something. While there are a number of properties owned by the same company that built a large majority of the city's buildings, there's one in particular that stands out.

As Adam's text filled a small portion of the screen a map appeared on the main portion marking both her current location and another waypoint that was a fair ways outside of the Raccoon City's developed area - on the outskirts, but still within the city limits. A moment later a sidebar appeared with a number of images, all of the same building, and not what Samus would have expected. Rather than being built in the same "modern" style as the rest of the city buildings, the one shown was a house - a big one at that, painted a blue gray and surrounded by forest from what Samus could see in the photos. Tapping the waypoint on the device's touch screen, Samus began moving to the edge of the sidewalk to wave down a taxi, briefly noting the address before turning her attention back to what Adam was "saying".

Apart from being of a distinctly different design than most of the other buildings in the city, the property was labelled as residential, and while it is supposedly deeded to a man named Oswell Spencer - apart from being dead, the man worked for the same company that Albert Wesker did, and after his death information on the building is nonexistant up until roughly four years ago, same as the majority of the city's buildings. There is one other thing that is troubling me, though - while the building is indeed large, the grounds are much bigger and I'm getting power readings from several hundred yards away from the house in multiple places. Normally I'd discount it as simple additions made by the previous or current owners of the property, but the building isn't drawing enough power from the city grid to account for these readings, and the gunship's scanners show no signs of a personal generator on the property, at least not on the surface. I'll keep digging, but you'll be able to tell more from there than I can from here.

As a taxi finally noticed Samus and pulled up to the curb, the woman glanced once more at the minitablet to memorize the address before naming the destination to the driver who, while surprised, merely did something of a slight double take but didn't ask any questions. Pocketing the tablet and climbing into the car, Samus at least hoped this lead would prove more useful than the last as the cab pulled away from the curb and began to quickly make its way to the city outskirts.

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[Albert Wesker]

The man who seemed to be in charge of the place in Wesker's abscence turned from the windows with a disgusted expression, rubbing at his eyes. Striding quickly away, he exited the room and proceeded down the hallway outside with a purposeful pace and expression. A scientist fell in step beside him, offering an unmarked folder to him, and what seemed to be a security officer fell in step on his other side.

Taking the folder, he opened it and glanced over its contents with a practiced eye for several seconds, before closing it and handing it back. "Very good. Bring it to the facility for its debut to Sir Wesker." The scientist took the folder back and nodded once, making his exit at a T-intersection in the hall. The facility head and his guard went the opposite way.

Turning to his guard, he spoke up again, "Have the transport to the Arklay underground facility ready in ten minutes. I have a minor stop to make along the way before we go there personally." The guard nodded and proceeded ahead at a quicker pace, rounding a corner in the hall, while his "boss" hung back, before turning to a door and proceeding through it. "Sir Wesker is on his way, as anticipated. Things should be prepared for his arrival within the hour."

His short report given, he turned and left, proceeding on his way to the transport.

((OOC: Yeah, not a whole lot going on, as you may have expected. :U ))

[samus]

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Back against the tree trunk, Samus watched as the man walked away from the window, waiting another few moments to be sure that there was no one around to see her before breaking from cover and dashing towards the mansion. It was just as Adam had said - there were indeed people here. What Samus didn't understand, though, was how or why - there were no vehicles parked around the building, at least none that she could find from her initial recon around the place, and while it was entirely possible that they had simply found alternative means of transportation up to the place like she had, Samus doubted that to be the case. The cab driver had adamantly refused to drive within a mile of the place, forcing Samus to get out and walk there herself, something which the driver had also advised against - needless to say, though, Samus had done so anyways, thankful that she was at least able to use her Fusion Suit without drawing undue attention now.

Cradling her right arm with her left and slightly hunched over as she moved, Samus closed the distance between the building and the treeline within the blink of an eye, stopping just short of the building's wall but not touching it - she had no idea what kind of security was in place, and didn't have time to scan everything. Moving along the wall and careful to stay out of sight of any of the windows, Samus continued along until she came to one of the building's entrances - a loading door for what would seem to be a cellar, propped at a 45 degree angle to the ground, painted the same color as the rest of the building and made of what appeared to be steel. What stood out of place, though, was the lock - far from being the simple, mechanical kind one might expect on such a place, it was clearly electronic, complete with what looked like a card key slot and keypad. Still, nothing to worry about - glancing around once more, Samus crouched in front of the doors and lowered her right arm, bringing her left hand up to the side of her helmet and using her scan visor to remotely access the device. Within mere seconds it flashed, thankfully without sound beyond a small click as it opened. Keeping her scan visor active, Samus quickly looked over the entrance thrice more, disabling a pressure sensitive security system before opening the doors with her left hand and disabling several more security lasers within the passage afterwards, moving on only after her suit's visor couldn't detect any further security systems. Once inside the passage Samus closed the outer doors behind her, using her scan visor once more to open the next door much as she had the first before moving into the darkened corridor.

So far, so good. At the very least there was definately something here worth investigating - people didn't try this hard to keep intruders out of a place unless there was something important there, or something you didn't want others to see. It might not have been the target she was hunting, but if these people were working with him it still might prove plenty valuable.

[Albert Wesker]

He had only taken a few steps when he was approached again, at a quickened pace. "Sir!" It was one of the security officers, and he looked as if he had something to report.

Stopping to allow the other man to catch up, he once again started toward his destination when the other man reached him "Yes, what is it?"

"We....got an odd reading on our outside scanners. It was barely there for half a second, and we almost missed it. Too fast to be a human or anything native to the forest, but it could've just been a glitch. That storm last week did mess with the security on the south border."

"Hmm.....is that all?"

"No, sir. We also had a momentary lapse in security in the external basement entrance, but it looked like it was just the usual security check."

"Usual security breach procedures; but don't raise the alarm. Post personnel at all entrances from the lower levels, double duty on the basement entrance. Lethal force authorized if it proves necessary. Do try not to let them escape, won't you? Sir Wesker would not be pleased if his.....work here became public."

"Yes, sir." And the other man turned back, hurrying down the hall and out of sight around a corner.

"Hmm..... These security systems are supposed to be foolproof. Sir Wesker tested and improved them personally... For anyone to breach them....it's inconceivable for any human. And only a human would have the intelligence to do so. I don't like it...." Folding his arms behind his back, he continued muttering to himself as he made his way to his transportation. Always a busy schedule.

[samus]

As the second doorway closed behind her Samus glanced back over her shoulder, momentarily standing upright and somewhat surprised by how quiet the mechanism was. Ironically much smoother than the Federation equivilant, if likely not as durable - Samus figured she could probably have forced her way through the security door if she'd wanted to, but that would have defeated the whole point of sneaking in like this. A quiet pneumatic hiss sounded from the door sealing shut, Samus turned her attention back to the dimly lit corridor, casually yet at the same time with a hint of caution bringing her right arm and the attached cannon up, slowly sweeping the hallway as she began to advance deeper into the facility. At least that was what it appeared to be - it was most definately not the kind of basement that would have befitted the building above it, which suggested something more along the lines of a concrete pit. This corridor, though, was exquisitely well maintained, clean and metallic looking with a hint of white ceramics here and there - if anything the place reminded her of the Bottleship's interior, better suited to a sterile work environment than to storage.

Continuing along for several more meters, Samus stopped as she reached a four way intersection where the hallway continued on in a straight line before branching off to both the left and the right. Easing her back up against the wall to her left, Samus crept forward to where the cross section began, keeping an eye on the two other pathways before quickly glancing around the corner before pulling back, glad that she hadn't simply continued forward. She'd been slightly unnerved by the seeming lack of a comprehensive security force or systems like she'd seen at the entrance, but now she knew why. The corridor she'd come down probably hadn't been important enough to warrant it, but now that she was slightly deeper in there were cameras - mounted just above the doorway down the left passage was one, and a quick glance down the right pathway confirmed that there was one there as well.

Turning her head to look back down the way she'd come, Samus saw no other way to go except forwards and resigned herself to it - at the very least she was getting practice with the Scan Visor, she hadn't needed to actually use it this often in years, either because the Pirates were getting sloppy or because she'd been in areas that simply had little to no security as of late. Keeping her back to the left wall, Samus edged just far enough to get a slight glimpse of the camera down the right pathway before locking onto it with her Scan Visor, cracking the security routines in seconds and programming it to send a video loop of an empty intersection back to wherever the feed was going before moving over to the right most wall and doing the same with the camera down the left passageway. Satisfied that at least the electronic security systems wouldn't catch her, Samus finally moved out into the hallway, looking to both passageways to her sides but unsure of which one to go through - at least until sounds began coming from the door off to her left, and if Samus had to guess it sounded an awful lot like an elevator or similar machinery. Left door wasn't an option, so that left the right - she did not want to get caught this early in, especially if it meant an altercation. Turning and quickly moving down the right hallway, Samus stopped in front of the door just long enough to crack the electronic lock with the Scan Visor once more before reaching forward, opening it and closing it behind her as she entered the room. As the lock automatically slid back into place Samus turned and did a quick survey of the room for any cameras she might've needed to disable, and once satisfied that there were none after a moment she turned back to the door, listening carefully as the door down the opposite passageway opened.