<strong>PFC Nortan 'Gizmo' Law</strong><br/><br/>It was a piece of tiny detail. That hazy layer of something struck Gizmo straight away as suspicious and worth shooting at to make sure nothing was hiding in it. Refraining himself from squeezing any triggers, he listened to his squadmates nearby, being mindful still to maintain part of his job as read guard, making sure to be behind Senjo and past the doorway. With his facing on their six to keep his vision and XV35 in that direction, he backpaddled slightly to stop in a low crouch close to the wall on his left.<br/><br/>"I dunno what that is from this distance. My best guess is a gas leak. Dining halls just some ways close by." He said to Rome, turning briefly, "Not surprising for the place to fall apart without anyone maintaining its guts."<br/><br/>Something in his mind told him otherwise. In light of the LT's rhetorical question, he was close to giving the CO a straight answer. The wierd mist, the ominous environment, the wrenching feeling he gets just by noticing it. It was all too familiar in a grimly nostalgic sense of way. Every part of his body was screaming danger. The situation could escalate at any second. His nerves could take little else if something jumped out and attacked them. He took a couple of sniffs of the air. Stale. Mighty pungent with the residual greasy scent from the garage. Something strangely unidentifiable mixed in the humidity. However, nothing toxic that he could identify, nor flammable, at least from this distance. Whatever it was, it was isolated in that area in front of the hub block.<br/><br/>He spoke again after he heard of Senjo's new theory, "A trap to keep something out.... Means there could be something, or somebody, inside.... From the looks of it, if Senjo is right, that system could be active and pointed right at us."<br/><br/>Not very odd for 'Big Brother WY' to issue non standard equipment and keep them out of the records. They could smuggle in and hide a tank if they wanted to and nobody would suspect a thing. The infamous megacorp from Hell, holds monopolies in a huge variety of arms, robotics and other hardware across the whole known galaxy. They could do anything they wanted and pretty much get away with it without anyone even noticing. If it werent for Colonel Hayes, Gizmo would just be like any other another marine serving the Corps. If it werent for Colonel Hayes, his eyes wouldnt have been so wide open. If things were as he had been told, he would have to assume the worst and expect anything. A possible active sentry gun waiting on the other side of that door would be the least of his worries. Maybe something was waiting in the corridor leading to the dining hall.<br/><br/>Then the order came. LT had ordered for the next door to be opened. According to the intel and the lights on the console next to it, it wasnt locked, so his expertise wasnt needed up front. He had an idea though. Since they were inside, the whole corridor and the rest of the building should have a local comms network. It should be easier to patch into any security network in here than outside. He didnt need dishes to connect via wire analog. All he needed was to patch into the nearest network hub and hope it works. Seemed like a long shot after seeing what happened to the cameras in the garage, but he could give it another try.<br/><br/>"If anyone could spot me a network hub, I could try patch into the security system in any room near it. Maybe I could get us an eyeball on whats inside them before we get goin." He spoke.<br/><br/>They looked like some panels on the walls about a foot tall and a foot wide, something like a box, with lots of red and green pipes connected to its sides. If WY hasnt changed their standard colony infrastructure, they should be around here in these corridors. The squad had dealt with them before, so everyone should be familiar with what to look for. He had done a lot of study and tinkering with WY electronics in the past, most of the time illegally, so much so that he was familiar with how their computers talked to each other on a standard scale. It was a lot of complicated things working like an orchestra of geeky dreams, a maze of information being passed around in a mess of electronic superhighways. The size of the network was not important as long as he knew the distinct patterns of programs and their functions, as well as where he was in the network. To him, a network the size of a colony like this should not be too difficult to tackle.... that is if the systems worked as they should. He could do nothing if there were broken hubs or damaged wires.<br/><br/>All this technical thinking calmed him down some, and he was suddenly reminded of Senjo and his one sided rivalry with her. If they plugged her in, she could do his job minutes faster than what he could do. Pushing aside that feeling of his shattering ego once more, he kept his ground in the rear, waiting for them to move up or anything to happen. He was not up for banter with this squad mates in the current situation. He was too busy nursing his nerves with constant attention to his surroundings, looking for anything else out of the ordinary.