Tarran Smith"I really need a medic." Tarran mumbles. "Hm, I haven't seen James lately."
Limp to James.
Dom and Taric are capable of handling themselves, the same went for Ash and her men, the only person who really probably needs your help right now is James. Your brow furrows in minor concern as you remember that you left him passed out in the open with six very nasty things that may or may not be prepared to honor the cease fire.
Maybe you should check on him.
You limp wordlessly out of the bloody room, leaving Ash's team to their bloody work as you head out to rescue the only comrade that you haven't alienated. Your walk out into the hall and squeeze your way back through the door you bent, walking softly and pushing your psychic sight out ahead of you in the darkness.
You don't see James.
A cold knot settles in your stomach as you stride to the intersection where your escort was waiting before. If they've done a damn thing to him there is going to be blood. As you reach the intersection you turn to lay a hard glare on the six immortals.
Only to find that they aren't there anymore either.
[Passive Kinetics 4+2] Faintly, at the very limit of your sight you can almost see a sort of glow. It isn't light exactly, this is something limited to your extracurricular senses, but it's definitely moving away from you. With James and your escort distinctly not here it doesn't take a genius intellect like yours to tell that the glow probably has something to do with James being kidnapped by the freaks.
---
Ashley Fey[Harry Int 2+1, Dex 4+1, Fight 4+1, Luck 2+1, Treatment 32/20] (10 HP restored to Ashley)
[Ashley Int 2, Dex 6, Fight 4, Luck 4, Treatment 29/20] (Jordan is now slightly damaged)
You and Harry conclude your work quickly and without incident, slightly surprising considering the complexity of the undertaking, but a welcome relief from the usual shitstorm. The three of you pack your things up and take a momentary breather. Tarran leaving doesn't even make you bat an eyelash, if he's there when you open fire then good, if he's not then things will probably proceed apace without him.
Granted, you would have like him to be there when you showed him what you that of his little non-aggression agreement, just so you could see his face.
(Your regenerate 3)
(Harry regenerates)
---
Dominique WakemanDom sighed. Clearly she'd been hoping for a bit more explanation than that, but it was obvious she wasn't going to get it. Instead, she decided to try something else. "Jake says if you put on that ID card and address the system, you should get a response. Why don't you try it?" While she was looking at Taric, she noticed he looked pretty hurt. "Here, while you concentrate on that, I'll patch you up," she said, getting out her medkit. "I'll try not to bother you too much."
Once again you attempt to address Taric while he's working, an action that gets even less response than there was the last time you tried. Faced with a strange door that your instincts tell you should not be opened, Jake's fervent ignorance, and Taric's monoptic focus, you really don't have a lot of options. Taric's focus, however, is currently immobilizing him with his work, a state that should allow to get a few minutes of patching in on his injuries before he realizes that you're poking tender bits. [Int 4, Dex 3+1, Fight 2+1, Luck 1 (+4) Treatment 10/20]
All goes fairly well until near the end when you get a little mesmerized by the shimmering holo-screen that he's working with, and accidentally stab him slightly in the neck. He doesn't react even as you pack on some more gauze to stop the new bleeding.
Damn, he must seriously be concentrating.
---
Taric Sizier"Yeah. Fair bit actually. Will take a bit to go through them all though." Taric read through the Directives, then watched the vid. After that, check the buffer of the decryptor for what it's used for. Continue delving into the system after all of that.
You pull the Directives first, they're fairly simple and straightforwards standing orders. After a couple of read-throughs you reduce them from lawyer speak to something resembling English.
1. Protect the 'Lead circle'. (Whatever that is)
2. Prevent the contamination or destruction of Argos.
3. Sit as a special judge in treason cases.
4. Root out and try insurrectionists.
5. Protect all Technocracy interests.
6. Circumvent conventional law and order only when necessary.
You grunt once in surprise at that last one. The Technocracy loves its precious rules, authorizing someone to go around them was the last thing they'd want to do. Still, the directives aren't specific to a project or task (save one), they're just guidelines. Hopefully the vid will be a bit more illuminating... With a couple of quick strokes the display unfolds into a flickering cube, processing for a couple seconds before the vid begins.
The recorder must have been nestled in a piping juncture down in maintenance, long lines of thin metal gas tubes occlude the view. A woman, maybe a couple years older than yourself is squatting down beside a piece of heavy machinery, her pad hovering over the interface panel. You'd guess she's maintenance, down doing standard readings. A couple seconds pass uneventfully and you skip forwards a couple of minutes, stopping only when a group of other workers pass her on their way out of the tunnels, waving a quick goodbye as they pass. The woman smiles and nods and goes back to her work, occasionally looking back at where the other workers have left the recorder's view. Eventually she cranes her head around, apparently looking to see if she could still see the ones who just left. After a moment she nods and withdraws a dull box from her maintenance duffel, clamping it tightly to the machine she was working on. She presses a part of the box's surface and pulsing red light comes to life on its side.
The woman smiles and then packs up the rest of her gear before leaving. As soon as she leaves you skip ahead again, waiting for something to happen. A few minutes later, it does. A lightly built man in plain, but impeccably clean clothing walks slowly into recorder's view, stopping in front of the box attached to the machine and frowning slightly. He stares at the box for a moment, tapping his fingers absently against his side. He squints suddenly, and the light on the side of the box dies. The man stoops and removes the box from the machine, picking it up and letting it go again at about chest height in the air. It hangs there. You watch the man breathe deeply and curl both of his hands into fists.
Then the box explodes. Bright white fire burns outwards and is stopped cold less than a foot from where the box's center used to be. The man stiffens even further as the miniature star of fire continues to burn. A count of five passes before the burning star dims enough for the man to relax again and allow the remaining energy to vanish in a puff of air and anemic fire. His gaze then turns to the recorder, his eyes seeming to look straight at you before he squints again.
And the recorder vid cuts off.
Well that was interestingly pointless. You would guess that the box was a bomb, the girl was a rebel of whichever denomination, and the guy... The guy was some form of psychic. Of course this still doesn't tell you why the video is here by itself, or even what the significance of the video is at all. Well, all that's left is the decryptor. You don't have have high hopes for it being illuminating, but it's a shot. [Mechanical 4+1]
You examine the program thoroughly, ripping apart the buffer in search of what it was meant to decrypt. Unfortunately there appears to be no evidence of a key or an original file that you can cross reference. There is, however, a record of the last message that was decoded still imprinted. It's very short.
From: Jordan Yule
To: George Winston
Subject: Quarterly Check
You know the drill.
Huh... That sender's name rings a bell, [intuition 3] but you can't quite remember where. Setting the message aside in the rapidly growing pane of things you're going to get back to, you start working on the next layer of security. [Mechanical 2+2 Vs Firewall 4+2] The security is fierce, fierce enough shut even your talents down cold on a first attempt.
---
James EvanRun run run find somewhere to run run run run run RUN!
Faced with an enemy that seems impossible to attack you abandon the position of stoic defender, turning tail to run for your life. [Dex 3] You flee to the boundary of the large room, all too aware of the tendrils turning to orient on you as you change position. As soon as you reach the edge you press your hand against the grey wall of the dream, desperately attempting to flee to somewhere that wasn't quite so hostile. [Will 2] The wall however remains immutable, for all intents and purposes it seems as solid as the concrete it resembles.
The tendrils continue to spread and grow, forming a dense web of black roots that has nearly consumed half of this room. A dense web that it seems you will become a part of.
Just as you begin to feel a true fear of dying within your own mind a hand reaches out from the wall, spreading ripples like water in what was an impervious solid to you. The hand is both familiar and female. It has hit you several times in the recent past.
Now it seems to want be helping you.
Can you trust it?
(If you don't move somewhere the tendrils will be within striking distance this round.)
---
Turn Recap Taric has become victim of a combo-breaker!
James really REALLY might be in trouble, or not...
Tarran is discovering the problems inherent with leaving people to the mercy of the bad guys.
Dominique is stabbing people
Ash Is finishing up
Jordan is see above
Harry is see above
The escort is doing something unknown.
Relevant ItemsMemory Stick (Dom)
Broken Pad (Taric)
Ident Badge -Pyotr Ivanov- (Taric)
Ident Badge -Kira Masse- (Tarran)
Unpowered Pad (Tarran)
Blight
Health: Lightly wounded
Armor: None
Primary Weapon: Dreamspace Knife
Secondary Weapon: None
Health: 73/100
Charge: 125/150
Carried Weight: 101/200 (-25%)
Attire: Plain gray under-armor padding. [10lbs] Heavy Combat Armor, 74/150. [45lbs]
Inv:
Leanashe Assault Rifle [30/30 18lbs]
4.73 mm Caseless box mags x1
Cirri Light pistol [20/20 4lbs]
Energy cell x5
basic medical supplies [1/5] (5lbs)
Manticore Pistol [9/10 6lbs]
Mechanical Bypass kit 3/5 [3lbs]
Arc implants, Planerian Implants
Stormcrow implants
Javelin Implants, Duelist Implants
Status: Primary Staff quarters.
Harry Nakamuno
Health: Badly Damaged
Charge: Three quarters charge
Description: 6'3", weighing three-hundred and fifty pounds Harry is the frontline muscle. Generally calm but a man who dislikes doing nothing, slow to anger he's been friends with Jordan since the Conclave gained their freedom.
Personality Complication: Just cause. Harry Believes in the work he does, and he believes hard. He won't hesitate to put a hole through anything in the way of his duty.
Skills: Melee 2, Soak 2, Brawling 2, Marksman 1
Attributes,
Strength (Str): 6
Dexterity (Dex): 3
Endurance (End): 6
Charisma (Char): 3
Intelligence (Int): 3
Willpower: (Will): 3
Staggershock implants,
Aegis implants, Lazarus implants
Samson Implants, Duelist Implants
Equipment: Heavy Combat Armor 52/150, Wolfkin SMG 12/18, Disruptor Pistol (4/4 4lbs), .50 cal drum clips x3,Advanced medical kit [1/5], Thermal Paste (1), energy cell x3, Orb Lightstand (35 lbs 12/20)
Jordan Grey
Health: Slightly Damaged
Charge: Almost Full
Description: 5'9'' Jordan is a slender blond man with the red scraggle of beard perpetually encroaching on his chin. Part of his memories were lost during translation, and all hope of recovering them lost in the second battle. His name is a combination of earth history and the book Grey's anatomy. His medical expertise remains intact along with his sarcasm and combat skills, but most of the rest of his life is hazy.
Personality complication: Hatred, he might not show it much of the time but Jordan holds a grudge against the... thing that robbed of the chance to ever recover his memories. He is determined to kill it, if it's the last thing he ever does.
Skills: Mechanics 2, Marksman 2, Dodging 3,
Attributes,
Strength (Str): 1
Dexterity (Dex): 6
Endurance (End): 1
Charisma (Char): 3
Intelligence (Int): 6
Willpower: (Will): 6
Javelin implants,
Spider implants, MD. Ande Suite
Toxicology and hazard recog, Arc implants
Equipment: Combat Armor 76/100, Laelaps Laser rifle 7/12 (15lbs), Disruptor Pistol (4/4 4lbs), energy cell x4, ORS pack 3/3, HE grenades (2).
Health: 91/115
Stamina: 33/115
Carried Weight: 160/200 (-25%)
Attire: Arbiter dress Uniform, pristine [10lbs] Standard Body Armor, 47/100. [35lbs]
Inv:
Abassy Heavy pistol -laser sight- [7, 8lbs]
Chimera Pistol [15, 5lbs]
Chimera Pistol [15, 5lbs]
Stun club (50/50 11lbs) x4
Fuath Riot suppression carbine [6, 13lbs, Caustic load]
.50 caliber pistol clips x7 (7, 2lbs)
Jormungandr Assault Rifle (A30, E65, 16lbs,)
LR Jormungandr Battle Rifle (13/35 A, 8/15 E, Damaged, 17lbs)
.220 gauss slugs x2 (35)
Smoke Grenades x1 (neg)
Field rations x1
Unusual Pistol [?, 9lbs]
Basic medical kit (2/5) (5lbs)
Data storage drive [Romance novels]
Status: private room, tired. Pep Talk (-1 against Tarran) (4)
Health: 27/70
Stamina: 31/70
Carried Weight: 138/170 (-25%)
Attire: Technocrat Commander Dress uniform [11lbs] Standard Body armor, 66/100. [35lbs]
Inv:
Energy Cell x7 (3 lbs)
Frankenstein Versatility Rifle (A4, E70, 31lbs, in hand,)
.220 gauss clip x4
Basilisk pulse rifle 4/5 (13 lbs)
Piru Gauss Rifle (4/5 4/5 16lbs)
.45 Gauss slugs x2 (5)
Disruptor Pistol (4/4 4lbs)
Saun's Helmet (Quarter full of ants, enclosed.) (3lbs)
Box of terrible scrap components (20lbs)
Short Range Radio, (Off)
Memory Foam centerfold
colonist rations x5 (5lbs)
Tripwire emitter
Status: Maintenance shaft top level, tired.
Health: 24/75
Stamina: 74/75
Carried Weight: 133/150 (-25%)
Attire: High-prelate Uniform [8lbs] Standard Body Armor 48/100. [35lbs]
Inv:
Ichneumon Anti-Armor Rifle -Scope- (1, 20lbs, 1 rounds in speed loader)
1' sabot packs x3 (2)
Chimera pistol (15, 5lbs)
Combat Knife (1lb)
Sleipnir SMG (A0, E25 9lbs,)
Sleipnir SMG (A0, E25 9lbs,)
3 energy cells
8 .220 gauss clips (35)
Basic First Aid Kit 3/5 (5lbs)
1 .220 gauss clip (25)
Jormungandr Assault Rifle (A35, E70), 16lbs, in hand)
Status: Primary Staff quarters, Hall. Pep Talk (-1 against Dominique) (4)
Health: 28/75 (Dreamspace HP 81/200)
Stamina: 32/75
Carried weight: 105/200 (-25%)
Attire: Exarch Dress uniform [8lbs] Light Body armor 32/50 [25lbs]
Inv:
Renfield SMG (10, 10lbs, in hand)
Riot shield (10lbs 30/30)
Piru Gauss Rifle (E5/5 A5/5 16lbs)
.45 Gauss slug clip (5)
Simone's Song (6lbs 4/7 -Frangible Rounds-)
.50 caliber Frangible pistol clips (7) x1
Dybbuk Flechette Canister Rifle (1/2 35 lbs)
20 mm flechette canisters (x2, 1 lb)
Status:Primary Staff quarters, Hall. Incredibly Smelly.
Author
Topic: Deviation-22. The End of All Things. (Read 527297 times)