Tarran Smith"Goddammit, I really wish I had that flashlight we lost in that big room right about now. Goddamn immortals shooting our shit. Go ahead and sit Dom, we're not going to have much luck until we get Taric's flashlight back here or find a light switch.
Also it doesn't look like these guys had anything on them. No guns, grenades, knives, or anything else. Just more damn IDs. Whoever gunned down these guys is a merciless SOB."
Check the walls for a light switch.
You walk carefully away from the railing, resolving to find some way of getting the lights on before you end up killing yourself. You talk with Dominique as you search the walls for anything useful, your topic of conversation ranging from life's general non-cooperation to the reason for Ashley being here.
[Observation 4] The walls that you can see are mostly clean, grooved to house ambient lighting strips, but not featuring any obvious way to turn them on. [Intuition 5] This is, you remind yourself, a restaurant. Restaurants usually don't have switches out where a disgruntled or inebriated patron can "accidentally" flick them off and darken the place, and even if they did, all the hallways are out as well, strongly hinting that primary power has been cut to this level.
If there is a way to bring any lighting up, whether the main lights or emergency lighting, it would probably be in the authorized personnel part of the restaurant.
---
Dominique Wakeman"Ugh... Boss, can we stop for a moment? Something... weird is going on with my eyes, I think I need to shut them for a bit. I can barely see anything." Dom looked around for a chair or, preferably, some sofa-like seating that she could lie down on and rest her eyes momentarily.
You stop and shake your head, trying to make your eyes stop playing tricks. It doesn't help. You look for something to rest on a while, [luck 5] finding a padded waiting bench set into the wall near the destroyed door. Part of it was annihilated by the bulk of the door careening through it, but there's enough left for you to lie down and stretch out a bit.
You lie down and close your eyes, talking with Tarran as you try and rest a little. You really aren't all that tired, despite your recent exertions, [End 3] (+9 stamina) but the rest is fairly nice. You don't manage to drift off to sleep, rooms filled with bodies and the smell of slightly burned metal have that effect, but you do feel better for having gotten off your feet for a moment.
---
James Evan"Subject... Status? Sample... 18? ...I'm the ...subject ...aren't I?"James watched "Subject Status" and "Sample 18 Status".
You pull the Subject Status tab while She watches from over your shoulder. You have excellent reason to believe that you are the subject here, and things about you that are pulsing and red are the kind of things you like to pay attention to.
The screen shifts slightly as the new page tiles out. It's a basic report, a little difficult to read thanks to the bright tropical sun and the paleness of image, but you can manage.
Primary Subject
Heart Rate: Elevated. 144 Bpm
Blood Pressure: Elevated. 147/92
Cerebral Activity: Elevated. 93Hz
Neural Integrity: Falling. 88%
Current State: Curious.
Iscariotic Duplicate
Figment Integrity: Secondary Memory Only
Control Level: None
Status: Inactive
Unknown Duplicate
Figment Integrity: Stable
Control Level: None
Status: Unknown, no tagging implemented
Warning: Figment source unknown
[Intelligence 2] Uh... Well. It seems that... Maybe it... ... No, you don't really have any idea. A few things are pretty obvious, like Heart rate and blood pressure, but you have no idea whether a cerebral activity of 93Hz means that you're thinking hard, or if it means that part of your brain is about to explode.
There is a single additional tab on this pane, "Control Options".
---
Aaron White You slump against the side of the maintenance shaft, catching your breath and hoping the burn on your leg feels worse than it is. You knew running the blockade would be dangerous as hell, even with perfect timing and the element of surprise, but you weren't prepared for this. The only consolation is that the former sek who was supposed to be leading this expedition wasn't prepared either, at least not enough to avoid losing a chunk of his skull in the first thirty seconds. You exhale slowly and wish you had something to smoke. Baron's death had left you in charge of finding a way up an out through this hell of concrete, dirt, metal, and hate.
Paula is on the other side of the duct, trying hopelessly to stop the constant flow of blood from a six inch tear in Henry's stomach. Cale is standing guard at the entrance, desperately doing something other than watch Henry bleed out on the floor. Baron should have been giving some form of quietly inspiring speech about carrying on, but that was difficult to do when your brain was playing hide and seek with your skull. You grimace and unscrew your helmet, the lowlight filters switching off the instant it leaves your head. You can still hear Henry dying, but it's a little better than being forced to watch it.
This seemed so much more possible when there were five of you, Baron a guard, Paula a former scientist, Cale and Henry both second-tier maintenance workers, and then you, the red maintenance brute. With Baron dead, Henry dying, and everyone else sporting some kind of a wound, things ain't rosy. But it isn't like there's much point in turning back. You need to make it out, or die trying. You need to find the hangars, a usable emergency exit, or at least a goddamn crack in the ceiling.
[Cale Observation 5 Vs Immortal Dex 3+1]
"Shit," Cale curses, stumbling backwards and running back to the rest of you.
"I can hear 'em behind us. They're still coming." You grimace and screw your helmet back on. Of course they're still coming, wouldn't be like them to cut you a break after almost butchering you. This isn't your homefield, but it's close enough that you've got a decent enough lay of the land to know the three major routes out of here that won't deadend. The first is an up'n'up ladder a ways down this corridor, service for the air processors on the testing field above you. From there you should be able to bypass the field itself and get up onto the nineteenth floor. The nineteenth floor is the high-military checkpoint, and supposedly one of the Shifting man's strongest points, it's also where your knowledge of the maintenance systems end. The second path is a sloping part of the the chute that's used to transport large pieces of machinery down from the primary maintenance floors and into red maintenance. There's a lift at the end of the slope, and you suppose it leads all the way up to the primary maintenance floor (you've never actually been, you and the other workers from the Red just made the pickup at the bottom of the shaft), but the chances of the lift being there -or working- are minimal. You might be able to repel up the shaft, but that's a bit of a long shot. The last option was to keep going straight for as long as you could outdistance the Shifting Man's goons, and then exit the shaft and head up onto the main floors.There would at least be light in the main corridors and the possibility of a normal stairwell. That, however, would make you a lot easier to track.
"We can't leave him," Paula protests. She's looking at Cale in a stricken way that makes you realize that you missed part of a conversation. You'd guess that the subject is Henry.
"We have to, he can't walk and we can't stay," Cale says, not actually looking at her as he speaks.
They both turn to look at you, reminding you that you're one who has to make these decisions now. You or Cale could probably carry Henry for a little while, he wasn't exactly a big guy, but there's no way in hell that you could climb a ladder or repel up the lift with him, slimming your three bad options to one bad option.
You grunt and stand up, buying yourself a little time to think. The makeshift bandage that Paula put on him is already soaked red, and odds are he's going to die in pretty short order, but he's still alive for right now. Moving him might aggravate his injuries, but leaving him behind to those... things definitely will.
Health: 74/75
Stamina: 42/75
Carried Weight: 151/150 (-25%)
Attire: High-prelate Uniform [8lbs] Standard Body Armor 48/100. [35lbs]
Inv:
Tarran's Ichneumon Anti-Armor Rifle -Scope- (1/1, 20lbs, 1 rounds in speed loader)
1' sabot packs x1 (2)
Chimera pistol (0, 5lbs)
Combat Knife (1lb)
Sleipnir SMG (A0, E25 9lbs,)
Sleipnir SMG (A0, E25 9lbs,)
Energy cells x4
8 .220 gauss clips (35)
Basic First Aid Kit 3/5 (5lbs)
1 .220 gauss clip (25)
Jormungandr Assault Rifle (A30, E65), 16lbs. In hand, ambush aim.
Artemis Railgun (E 3/3, A 3/3, 18lbs)
.50 Rail Clip (3)
Status: Unknown Restaurant.
Health: 99/135
Stamina: 115/115
Carried Weight: 178/210 (-25%)
Attire: Arbiter dress Uniform, pristine [10lbs] Standard Body Armor, 47/100. [35lbs]
Inv:
Dominique's 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)
Full Bottle of Wine x1 (1lb, sealed)
Jormungandr Assault Rifle (A30, E65, 16lbs. In hand, ambush aim)
LR Jormungandr Battle Rifle (13/35 A, 8/15 E, Damaged, 17lbs)
Artemis Railgun (E 3/3, A 3/3, 18lbs)
.220 gauss slugs x2 (35)
Smoke Grenades x1 (neg)
Energy cells x1
.50 Rail Clip (3) x1
Field rations x1
Unusual Pistol [?, 9lbs]
Basic medical kit (1/5) (5lbs)
Data storage drive [Romance novels]
Unknown Chemical Hypo x3 (Neg)
Partially sorted (1/3) stack of Technocrat stamped papers (Bad novel)
Status: Unknown Restaurant.
Health: 28/75 (Dreamspace HP 110/200)
Stamina: 75/75
Carried weight: 105/240 (-25%)
Attire: Exarch Dress uniform [8lbs] James' Light Body armor 47/50 (50/50) [25lbs]
Inv:
(Dreamspace: Satyr Light pistol 14/18)
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: West Corridor, V junction. Incredibly Smelly.
Health: 73/85
Stamina: 62/85
Carried weight: /180
Attire:Red Maintenance Jumpsuit, Heavily Modified Red Maintenance Suit (86/115, 45 lbs).
Inv:
Phoenix pistol (2/3) (9 lbs)
CFG bars x2 (3)
Simple Knife (2 lbs)
Crowbar (8lbs)
Fifty feet of rope (10 lbs)
Homemade grappling hook (2 lbs)
D-Grade rations x4 (4 lbs)
Status: 21-20 maintenance chutes
Paula Ria
Health: 43/55
Stamina: 40/55
Description: Short, brown haired. The years she spent as a researcher at Delphi added lines to her face, the year she spent as a prisoner here added a decade and what weight she had from her frail body.
Personality Complication: Soft. Despite her recent hellish ordeals, Ria was a born and raised Technocrat. She's gotten conditioned to hardship, but the pain and the cold decisions that need to be made in her new life still stun her.
Skills: Mechanical 3, Intuition 1, Dodging 1
Attributes,
Strength (Str): 1
Dexterity (Dex): 3
Endurance (End): 1
Charisma (Char): 4
Intelligence (Int): 9
Willpower: (Will): 3
Equipment: Light Body Armor 42/50, Stained Labcoat, Military grade night-vision goggles. Chimera Pistol 0/15, .22 clips (15) x4, Diagnostic pad, energy cell x2, Light Plasma Torch, Basic Medical Kit (3/5), Fifty feet of rope, Homemade grappling hook, D-Grade rations x4. (100/100)
Henry Myers
Health: 3/75
Stamina: 20/75 (Unconscious. Bleeding heavily, -10 stamina per turn)
Description: An emaciated man of average height. He's mostly bald now, thanks both due to a receding hairline and to a chemical spill the permanently injured his scalp.
Personality Complication: Maudlin. Henry has a dark streak a mile wide, and he usually shares it at every available person. He's a good man, but the tendency to vent every depressing thought that runs through his head makes him a little irritating.
Skills: Soak 2, Marksman 2, Stamina 1
Attributes,
Strength (Str): 6
Dexterity (Dex): 6
Endurance (End): 3
Charisma (Char): 1
Intelligence (Int): 3
Willpower: (Will): 4
Equipment: Maintenance Jumpsuit, Heavily Modified Maintenance Suit (23/90). Kapre Light Rifle 12/15, .30 caliber clips (15) x2, Pack of Flares, Fifty feet of rope, Homemade grappling hook, D-Grade rations x4.
Cale Levi
Health: 88/105
Stamina: 82/105
Description: A tall young man, blond and brown eyed. He's in fairly decent shape, considering his recent lifestyle.
Personality Complication: Young, and kinda Stupid. Cale is a young man, and though time has aged him quickly, he still occasionally acts on wild impulse.
Skills: Mechanical 1, Melee 2, Dodge 1
Attributes,
Strength (Str): 3
Dexterity (Dex): 6
Endurance (End): 6
Charisma (Char): 4
Intelligence (Int): 3
Willpower: (Will): 1
Equipment: Maintenance Jumpsuit, Heavily Modified Maintenance Suit (78/90). Sleipnir SMG (20/30), .223 clips (30) x2, Energy cell x2, Crude Combat Blade, Neuroflash grenade x2, Fifty feet of rope, Homemade grappling hook, D-Grade rations x4.
Author
Topic: Deviation-22. The End of All Things. (Read 526246 times)