Without any alternative, the convoy reached it's destination still in the depth of the night. Having expected both vehicles as they were, there were no questions raised, and things had proceeded smoothly thus far.
"Okay, this isn't good. There are far too many people here, and they just closed the gate behind us. Our chances of pulling this off with force alone is basically nothing. Qheria, your mother does the sneaky thing.. sometimes at least. What's the best way we can follow that idea?" "The biggest trick to that would probably be patience. We got in, which in most cases wouldn't have been easy. Getting out won't be easy either. We hardly know what we're working with, or where everything is. So a lot like our first trip to the Factory. We need to sneak around, gather information from the shadows, and figure out a plan." Mhyl pondered Qheria's answer to her question. This was the fortress, the origins of all the advanced technology they had been facing. This was possibly their most crazy operation so far. It was also really the reverse of what had happened when they had escaped from the bandit camp before as well, they were actually trying to sneak in instead of out.
Thanrie meanwhile had been looking through the scope, making sure not to push any of the buttons. "If we parked near that gate, we could slip though to the other side. It's not even fully closed, so it won't be locked. Mhyl, is there anyone around there?" "Actually, no, it's pretty quiet near that area. This will mean they will be able to carry Lwyn away, but we'll just have to track her destination down." Thanrie understood Mhyl's concerns, but as long as they themselves stayed safe, they could save Lwyn.
Qheria managed to park discreetly in the shadows, and they all slipped through the gate, into a faintly lit corridor. Neon filaments glowed along all of the halls. "Thanrie, do you need someone to hold your hand? Cause no matter what, we can't have you shrieking again here." Mhyl was aware that the layout was the same eerie lighting that had thus far kept Thanrie in fear twice before, and this honestly could be seen as a third time coming. The halls were much brighter at least, without quite the same horror-filled impression, but it still reminded her too much of the past incidents. Thanrie had no answer.
As they kept going though endless corridors, Mhyl eventually saw a patrol approaching them. They all ducked into a nearby storage closet to avoid being spotted. The door had a window, but was cluttered full of junk and was completely dark. Eventually the patrol walked to the door, a neon filament glowing from their forehead. As the light turned and glowed through the window, Qheria cupped Thanrie's mouth, stopping the onset of any scream successfully. Once the patrol walked away, they finally decided to whisper about it.
"That... that was another one of those clockwork automatons again. I couldn't see it very clearly, especially having to stop Thanrie's nerves, but the similarity was at least that obvious." Qheria was even more nervous, having been aware how dangerous those things could be. A single one was considerably more skilled than a bandit, and could easily raise an alarm. Last time, they had taken them out only thanks to a matter of numbers and the gift. This time, they had nothing like that, only their own tools and weapons.
Qheria thus had the largest misfortune right now as well. With a short range and the loudest of utilities, she had to depend on the abilities of her friends. It was a shame Lwyn wasn't here, she could have been really helpful with her long range accuracy. The three of them kept going regardless, and eventually passed up beside a window. They looked down below them and saw many of the clockwork automatons working on.. something. They couldn't figure out what it was. What was remarkable was that, with the improved lighting, they got a better perspective of them.
Contrary to how artificial the ones in the Factory had appeared, the ones here looked frighteningly normal. Like a real person with armor and accessories that wouldn't ever be coming off. They were even actually wearing various robes and clothing, like a real person. Something about them thus looked even more terrifying, as they were not only too... realistic, they also were considerably more advanced. Thus, they had no idea just how much more deadly these models could be over the ones found in the Factory.
Mhyl, glancing at her headset, got a sudden feeling of fear. "Maybe we should keep moving like everything is normal. Come on you two..." "Uh, why are we suddenly nervous? Is someone coming?" "No, but I came to wonder that, if I have a headset like this, what is the chance someone else does too? Mine can't tell exactly what someone is, so if they are acting like guards, they are probably guards. But if they are acting like spies, they are probably spies." Mhyl's insight made Thanrie regret asking. Of course, using Fortress tech in the Fortress could mean their enemy was using the same against them. A robot that could move like Thanrie, or climb like Lwyn, or jump like Qheria... those could all be scary, but if they weren't caught then none of those would be a problem. However, being able to search like Mhyl, that was a danger to them. They needed to act like they belonged here at all times, less they get discovered.
Qheria at least felt thankful that the guard before then hadn't found them. Mhyl certainly could have. But just because one guard wasn't good enough, wouldn't mean that others would be as unprepared. They needed a better way to avoid the guards. "We need a better way to blend in, somehow. A disguise could have been an idea, if all of the guards weren't just robots. We need to find a way to fit in how people here would fit in. Barring and until then, we need to find a way people won't find us." Qheria looked around as she walked, wondering where a place to hide could be found.
Mhyl was reminded to when she had been looking for Lwyn, and had instead missed her in searches right up to when she took to the door out. How did Lwyn do it? Getting Lwyn's insight right now would have been priceless. "If only we had Lwyn here, she seemed good with this sort of thing." "Well, with gloves like her's I get the feeling she would probably go up, wouldn't she? I mean, she really does love climbing." Mhyl was suddenly shocked by Thanrie's idea. She hadn't ever thought to look up.
Qheria considered the idea, and shook her head. "Going up might be good for Lwyn, but she's that good of a climber, she's the only one who could do such a thing. Up like that really doesn't seem like much of an option." Qheria pondered the concept though. Much like spies, the idea of taking to the ventilation system was all too much a classic. Baring that was ideas like a maintenance section under the floor, or other hidden passages like it. While going under the floor could be an idea, they did remember that they were just on a higher floor, looking down at others. None of them even remembered taking stairs, so it was probably a basement level. Sneaking between levels would just look weird to people in the larger rooms beside them, if they could see through walls like Mhyl.
As they continued along, suddenly one of the robots formed from the walls. Mhyl had forgotten that, while in those cases, it was too hard to determine their shapes. She couldn't ever tell one was inside. All of them jumped in surprise as the robot reacted. "Halt, human patrols are not permitted at this hour. Curfew has passed already, please return to the patrol ward for routine rest." The robot for some reason thought they were allowed to be there. Possibly because they were trying to look like they belonged there.
"Ah, yes, I'm sorry we missed that curfew. Us three have been working hard to meet the expectations of our leader, and.." "Ah, that human event of compulsion from superiority in an effort to appease such superiority. Human antics can be very difficult to deal with. But if your superior has deigned you to work passed curfew, action must be taken. Please take a copy of my identification shard. If your superior deigns to complain, I will vouch as your witness to this event. To allow you overnight respite to address this incident in the morning, I will take you to one of the unused dormitory sectors, so that curfew can be enforced." Qheria's lie seemed to have been believed completely by the robot. It had even decided to bring them to a place to rest for the night safely. Qheria pocketed the shard, realizing the thing might still be useful.
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The robot guided them through another maze of halls before reaching a door. It motioned for them to enter. Inside was reasonable if not rough accommodations, at least no worse than their usual back at their own facility. Qheria even noticed that the door itself only locked from the interior, and could easily be broken, this wasn't a trap. They accepted the hospitality as their guide moved back to it's own responsibilities.
"I'm not sure what to think about that. Was that a sign of unusual intelligence, or unusual stupidity? Either way, we finally can get some rest. Who is on first watch?" Thanrie wasn't about to just relax this easily. She knew someone would have to keep watch, even if they had to pretend to sleep in cycles. "I'm.. I'm not even sure what happened there?" Mhyl was confused, having not understood the Izhaethyx. As far as she knew, the robot had suddenly not been aggressive, talked a lot, and then they were here. The only reason she wasn't panicking was because the others weren't.
Thanrie and Qheria went over the conversation with Mhyl. "If it thought we were a human patrol, then that's what we should become. Does this room have actual uniforms? We will need to make certain we look the part." "I'm still worried something here is a trap. We should sleep in shifts, Mhyl should take last shift. As soon as it looks like a normal morning on the headset, we need to go. Grabbing a uniform at random here could instead give the wrong ideas. I don't know, something here just doesn't feel right." Mhyl thought she had a good idea until Thanrie started to complain.
The plan left them with little time to sleep, but they took what they could get. Then they left, long before anyone would arrive. The three of them were getting very tired at this point, but that couldn't be helped. "What we really need to do is actually find real human patrols, or mostly their rooms. Dressing up like them might be the best way ahead, but leaving naked bodies will just raise alarms. Mhyl, do we have anything like that anywhere?" "Nothing nearby at least. There is so many weird things around that finding specific details on things is kinda hard." Qheria lead the way forwards then, to give Mhyl a better opportunity. Mhyl had just been struggling because of how many different things were around, the walls around here weren't the best for seeing through.
They kept going until another patrol started to approach. They looked for a place to hide, and Thanrie found another unlocked door. They jumped inside, though it was a larger room with a few sub rooms. Once inside, they heard the door also being used by the patrols. The three of them dove into one of the small nearby rooms, and took to their own hiding spot within the room. Mhyl found a small storage closet in the room, and hid in the back behind the stuff inside it. Qheria found she could climb some of the boxes and hide in a pocket of the ceiling. Thanrie dove between some small furniture in the room, being the only one there small enough, with also small enough gear, to pull that off. Her weapon though had to sit under the furniture.
"Oh I really didn't sleep well last night. Patrol work is hard enough, but when we get these stupid side jobs." "Oh, I totally get what you mean. Last night I had to whitewash our dinning hall, alone, with a hair ribbon." "OH! Is that where my hair ribbon went? Oh by the divine, then I don't want it back anymore." Two of them were talking together as they entered, clearly with a lot on their mind. The third of them sounded more impatient. "Okay girls, we don't have time for this. If we don't make it in time for patrols, we know there will be worse at stake then hair ribbons. Just get changed and get your uniforms on already." The third girl opened the place Mhyl was hiding and pulled out three outfits, before closing the door again. Mhyl was still safe.
"Ugh, I feel sorry for whoever it is that has to do this laundry. Oh yeah, thankfully that hasn't been me for a while. I hear the competition to get out of the thing has only gotten worse." "It's always the new girls that get stuck doing it, and it's always the worst of dirty tricks to drag someone into it. I wonder how bad it's gotten." "I hear some of the new girls had gotten injured pretty badly because of it. I don't know if the injury was because of the competition or because of actually doing laundry, but it can get really bad." The first two girls continued to chatter. Qheria was left wondering how doing laundry could leave someone so injured..
Suddenly, Thanrie sneezed. "Ah! Whose there!" The third girl was on alert already. Thanrie thought quickly and came up with a plan. While getting up, she managed to get most of her gear off, leaving her only in undergarments. "Uh.. I don't want to, I really don't want to, they can't make me." Thanrie started crying suddenly, making the three girls concerned. "What's wrong, is something the matter?" "The other girls.. I even won their little competition, but the girl who lost, she said that if I didn't do the laundry for her, she would make sure my bed was filled with dirt, so that I wouldn't get any sleep. They dragged me in here so early and took away my clothes, I don't even know what I did to deserve this. I was supposed to do patrols this morning, I'm going to get in so much trouble..." At the concern from the third girl, Thanrie broke into an even greater sob story, completely made up on the spot with the details she had just heard.
The first two girls both froze, hearing this story. "Uh, that really does sound like it sucks." "Maybe if you're quick, no one will notice?" Neither of the two wanted to get in the way of a girl assigned to laundry duty. The third of them, who was clearly more senior, was more rational. "If that's the case, you should make sure to have a patrol uniform on hand, so that you can leave quickly. Also, that means you should get started right away. The machine is in the next room, if you didn't know. As long as you can keep it going without falling in, you shouldn't be injured to heavily. But at the very least, girl, put something on first, in case one of the guys comes around to patrol. The change room is safe, but not the laundry room." The girl handed her two things, an outfit that looked exactly like their own, and another one that looked like it has gone through a lot more wear and tear. The second outfit still had dried blood stains on the sleeves.
Thanrie had issues disguising her disdain, though it was still fitting for her story. "I... uh... I will, thank you. I guess... I had better get going." Thanrie set down her two outfits to start getting changed, while the other three girls set to flee. Even the more veteran of the group didn't want to stick around in a scene like that. Thanrie put down the bloodied robes after they had left, instead going for the patrol uniform given to her. She really really... really did not want to wear the other robe. Mhyl and Qheria came out of hiding at this point, with Qheria instantly going for translations on the events for Mhyl while searching for more of the same uniform in their larger sizes.
"Well, good work on that then, Thanrie. Your sob story once again saved the day, by breaking hearts and tainting souls." Mhyl realized this was the second time she was getting a new outfit to wear due to one of Thanrie's tearful performances. Thanrie could really play the part almost too well. For all that her normal behaviour lead against it, her appearance actually looked far too well put for the innocent maiden act, especially with her small frame. Some of it might have something to do with the fact she was a true blooded princess, after all, but that was something that was almost all too easy to forget in their daily lives.
They finished getting changed and took to the halls once again, their other stuff packed away successfully. It did mean they had to switch out their usual weapons for some simple sabers, and even Mhyl was carrying one, but some things couldn't be helped. On their way out, a girl walked in crying, looking like the most miserable person in the world. She found the robe Thanrie had set aside, and started putting it on. The other three girls knew what that might imply, and decided now was a good time to leave.
Mhyl had also made sure that her ears were covered, so that she once again could blend in as one of the humans. She had yet to see an elven bandit, so she wasn't going to put to chance that being caught as an elf would raise too many unanswerable questions. She had found a decent enough hair ribbon for the task, after first making sure it was an obviously clean one. However, she was now without her headset, so she would have to depend on her own natural senses. Still, being a elf did itself help with that situation.
The three of them continued along the halls, fulfilling the image of being on patrol. While the situation was still very grim, they at least looked a lot more natural then they had before in their new undercover disguises.