Tarran Smith, Dominique Wakeman, James EvanDom growled. "Just tell me where the fuckin' elevator is gonna be." Once she knew, she was heading to that location.
Follow Dom.
James started by just... staring. That... that was Taric's eye. What kind of messed up... ... James cleared his thoughts up, and decided to keep following Dom.
Everyone remains silent save for Dominique and the radio. The Father hisses directions and Dominique curses back answers and profanity. Tarran and James follow mutely when Dominique leaves, leaving Taric's blind eyeball to stare after them. Dominique strides back the way she came, tracing back through the restaurant and up the stairs without slowing. Her profanity trails off into silence after a little while, but the Father keeps hissing a mixture of threats, directions, and what might have been very sick attempts at humor.
The elevators the Father referred to were the pair that the immortals had carried James to earlier, and Tarran and James arrive at them on Dominique's heels, both breathing heavily from the effort of keeping pace with the shorter woman. Dominique, however, seems to be sustained by murderous rage. The panic she had at finding Taric's estranged eyeball is... not lost, but tempered with fury and given a target. The cheery sound of an elevator arriving announces the father making good on his psychotic word, making Tarran and James tense to deal with whatever is inside. Dominique couldn't look any more ready to kill if she tried.
The doors slide open to reveal nothing but the interior of the carriage, plain but brightly lit. A few spatters of ichor and James' blood are the only mementos of other passengers, but Dominique barges in without even waiting for the doors to open all the way. Her shoulder dents the door on the way in. James and Tarran get in more cautiously. Between Dominique and the Father's alternating mixture of sibilant insanity and death threats it's a very uncomfortable ride down.
The elevator stops at the bottom of its track, depositing them on floor nine with the same incongruously cheery sound that it beckoned them in with. The Father gives directions with surprising calm, telling them to head on straight to the third right, then take the second left, go down a ramp, and take the first elevator down to floor eighteen. Wall screens light up in the corridor ahead, one every twenty feet, and each of them showing an arrow pointing to your destination. Insulting, but effective. Dominique starts off immediately, looking ready to walk through the first wall that gets in her way and leaving Tarran and James no choice but to try and keep up.
Dominique follows the giant glowing arrows and cuts across the floor, not even glancing to the side when corridors cross. She has someone to kill, any ambush stupid enough get in her way is going to have to wait in line.
The Father's directions and the arrows lead to a larger elevator hub, three personnel elevators and one large elevator for transporting equipment. The nearest personnel elevator starts to make that cheery electronic noise, but it warbles and dies midway. The doors twitch open a centimeter, then stop dead. The wall screen beside the elevator goes static for a couple seconds and then blanks. Text appears in the unsteady bursts of an unskilled typist.
What the hell do you think you're doing?
---
Aaron White"So theres enough firepower in whatever it is to require constant repair? Pass, not patching it up, would detonate in my face, Next floor."
You direct your group to keep climbing up the stairs, giving the engineering labs a miss. You were red maintenance, and you've got enough experience to know that you don't want to be the first man to try repairing something that the technocrats actually admit is unstable.
The next door up the stairs doesn't even resemble a door anymore. Parts of the ceiling have slammed downwards, crushing the door until the metal frame and part of the wall are pushing out into the stairs. Nothing short of a floppy probe could have made it through the debris. Your party exchanges glances and keeps climbing.
The door several flights above is much the same, except in reverse. The floor is broken and uneven, metal and concrete pushed up as high as eye level in some place. Something interesting, and obviously very destructive, happened between floors eleven and twelve. Paula just shakes her head in disbelief when you ask her if she has any idea what happened.
Despite having climbed an ungodly number of stairs, its almost a relief when the next door is merely locked. Your mouth is open to ask what happened to be on
this floor when Paula answers, anticipating the question.
"Laboratory storage, everything we needed to build a better work for four months without resupply. Nutrient feed for the cloning vats in bio, spare parts for the engineering teams, and ever single report we ever compiled. She fingers the edge of her stained labcoat, grimacing at the lack of an ID badge.
"I used to have clearance to some of the storerooms. If we can get past this door and..." she trails off as a wall screen on the stairwell flares to life. Its display glows with a single fat, red arrow, pointing straight up the stairs.
Relevant ItemsMemory Stick (Dom)
Security Card November (Dom)
Ident Badge -Kira Masse- (Tarran)
Ident Badge -Naomi Weiss- (Tarran)
Unpowered Pad (Tarran)
L1RF Key (Tarran)
Jake's Engraved Plate (Dom)
Radio (Dom) [On]
Health: 69/85
Stamina: 85/85
Carried weight: 92/180
Attire:Red Maintenance Jumpsuit, Heavily Modified Red Maintenance Suit (30/115, 45 lbs).
Inv:
Phoenix pistol (1/3) (9 lbs)
CFG bars x2 (3)
Crowbar (8lbs)
Simple Knife (2lbs)
Bone Spike (1lbs)
Fenrir pistol 5/7 (6lbs)
Fifty feet of rope (10 lbs)
Homemade grappling hook (2 lbs)
D-Grade rations x4 (4 lbs)
First-Aid Kit 5/5 (5 lbs)
Energy cells x3
Status: Floor 10 stairwell
Paula Ria
Health: 39/55
Stamina: 45/55
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 stole 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 36/50, Stained Labcoat, Military grade night-vision goggles. Manticore Pistol (9/10, 6lbs), .30 cal clips (10) x2, Chimera Pistol 15/15, Diagnostic pad, energy cell x2, Light Plasma Torch (60/100), Basic Medical Kit (2/5), Fifty feet of rope, Homemade grappling hook, D-Grade rations x4, ORS pack (3/3).
Henry Myers
Health: 43/75
Stamina: 34/75
Description: An emaciated man of average height. He's mostly bald now, thanks both due to a receding hairline and to a chemical spill that 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 9/15, .30 caliber clips (15) x2, Pack of Flares, Fifty feet of rope, Homemade grappling hook, D-Grade rations x4, ORS pack (2/3)
Cale Levi
Health: 105/105
Stamina: 105/105
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 (5/30 | 35/60), .223 clips (30) x2, Energy cell x2, Crude Combat Blade, Neuroflash grenade x2, Fifty feet of rope, Homemade grappling hook, D-Grade rations x4, ORS pack (3/3).
Health: 60/75
Stamina: 75/75
Carried Weight: 146/150
Attire: High-prelate Uniform [8lbs] Standard Body Armor 19/100. [35lbs]
Inv:
Tarran's Ichneumon Anti-Armor Rifle -Scope- (1/1, 20lbs, 1 rounds in speed loader)
1' sabot packs x1 (2)
Combat Knife (1lb)
Sleipnir SMG (A0, E25 9lbs,)
Sleipnir SMG (A0, E25 9lbs,)
Energy cells x3
8 .220 gauss clips (35)
Basic First Aid Kit 3/5 (5lbs)
Jormungandr Assault Rifle (A16, E26), 16lbs. In hand,
Artemis Railgun (E 1/3, A 2/3, 18lbs)
.50 Rail Clip (3)
Credit Chit (Unknown)
Status: Floor 9.
Health: 106/135
Stamina: 57/135
Carried Weight: 135/210
Attire: Arbiter dress Uniform, pristine [10lbs] Standard Body Armor, 29/100. [35lbs]
Inv:
Dominique's Abassy Heavy pistol -laser sight- [5, 8lbs]
Stun club (50/50 11lbs)
Fuath Riot suppression carbine [5, 13lbs, Caustic load]
.50 caliber pistol clips x7 (7, 2lbs)
Full Bottle of Wine x1 (1lb, sealed)
Jormungandr Assault Rifle (A35, E70, 16lbs.)
LR Jormungandr Battle Rifle (13/35 A, 8/15 E, Damaged, 17lbs)
Artemis Railgun (E 3/3, A 3/3, 18lbs)
.220 gauss slugs x1 (35)
.220 gauss slugs x1 (30)
Smoke Grenades x1 (neg)
Energy cells x3
Energy cell (90%) x1
.50 Rail Clip (3) x1
Field rations x1
Phoenix Pistol [2, 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: Floor 9
Health: 38/75
Stamina: 67/75
Carried weight: 111/240
Attire: Exarch Dress uniform [8lbs] James' Light Body armor 35/50 (45/50) [25lbs]
Inv:
Renfield SMG (10, 10lbs)
Riot shield (10lbs 1/30, in hand)
Piru Gauss Rifle (E5/5 A5/5 16lbs)
.45 Gauss slug clip (5)
Simone's Song (6lbs 3/7 -Frangible Rounds-)
.50 caliber Frangible pistol clips (7) x1
Irin Combat Shotgun 3/6 (15lbs)
Dybbuk Flechette Canister Rifle (1/2 35 lbs)
20 mm flechette canisters (x2, 1 lb)
Status: Floor 9. Incredibly Smelly.
Author
Topic: Deviation-22. The End of All Things. (Read 537717 times)