USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 THIRD ASSIGNMENT- 'The Fortress'

Mors returns the shrug.

"As long as we're not looking at Pandora's Box..."

He casts a few casual glances over his shoulder to make sure everyone else is getting to the Ecto chairs, then returns his focus to Ariadne's screens.

Klez checks his guns, then waits for the Hunter to lead the way.

"I just don't like that all those Agents were at the Monastery. And I certainly don't trust that Exile, or the monks either, for that matter." San says. "But there's not really anything we can do about that from here...and somehow I feel that breaking into a military base will need a more specific plan than 'sneak as far as we can and hope for a distraction'."

"It'll involve lots of spearing..." Melis says, quite certainly. "In any case, those with that Hunter fella will be fine. He seems to have this planned out, and I'm sure Klez will keep everyone under control. He's a man people will follow...at least, I'd follow him..."

Melis falls silent, realizing that she's babbling a bit much about her lover.

"Anyways, I think we'd need to actually pick a location before we can plan anything," she says to San.

Sirin keeps her last three pistols secured- two in holsters at her belt, one in a shoulder holster- and waits for the get-go.

Berserker walks with everyone

"They should be fine...just the number of Agents that were there and how damaged everyone is is kind of worrying." San replies. "And yeah, certainly would be helpful to know where we're going, but still, kind of a no-brainer that doing the same thing we did for getting the helicopters likely won't be enough to pull this off."

"Yeah, a dozen was extreme. Still, the System's stretching their resources on that one, they'll be hard-pressed to send one after us at the military base."

"That'll definitely be an advantage for us. I've never even heard of that many Agents being sent to one single place before."

"Listen," says Dallas. "The Machines built that thing. If it was going to screw us over they would have opened it ages ago. It's probably all a big joke anyway, but if we open it, it's OUR joke, and I can handle that. We're in control.

"As for a plan... how about shooting everyone we see?"

---

Ok, Philo folks, it's a straight sneak through to the island in the middle of the Monastery. The Agents are on patrol, but the Hunter is very good at spotting where they are, and organising you appropriately.

Any particular ways you want to approach it?

"Works for me. I need to shoot something that will actually die when I shoot it..."

"As long as that does lead to certain death, sure, why not," Mors says, incredulous that they're entering a situation like this at all, willingly.

Sequel has been updating you guys with the general situation.

"All the ships are still having to go out far too far out to find decent broadcast points," he says. "But it's not all bad news. Report came through that Hammer is clear. They found a way through the sweeps. Good work for a ship that size; I thought they were in real trouble."

"Good Captain, Roland," says Dallas. "I knew he'd be fine."

"He was cutting it fine. He's barely got enough power to get back to Zion."

"Ahh, barely, plenty... all the same when you get home."

"Yeah, definitely a reliable guy. Still, we're not bad off for a broadcast point, are we? I mean, we're in one..."

"We're a long way out," says Sequel.

"Yeah, and fully powered," says Dallas.

"What we don't have are any reliable backups."

"He has a point, Dallas. If we blow it at the military base, we can't get out without retrieving the others. Nobody else is going to help us..."

"And since when has that stopped us? There's plenty of times that I would have gone 'Oh shit, we need help with this,' but Dallas doesn't, and we end up not needing the support anyways..."

"Well, we'd better not blow it then! Simple!"

"Good call. Let's pack explosives just to be safe..."

"Well, as long as you're sure we can pull this off," Mors says, monitoring the others with the Hunter on-screen. "I hope they can pull that off..."