Toomas Amk"Very well. Let us leave."
Put on that head-mic. Never know when it might come in handy. Then follow Rob!
Rob nods and walks out of the equipment room, not even checking to make sure that you're following him. The two of you are alone in the path you take, skirting the edge of the military sector. Most of the other Cellburners keep to the interior, holed up in the mess hall, the barracks, the R&R facilities, and of course, air processing. Nobody trusts the ones who stay in there all the time. The have too much in common with the Freaks, too much chance of joining them. The human survivors are kept in detainment, allegedly for their own protection, but it also makes them a convenient captive food supply if it is ever needed.
Rob stops at the edge of the military area, feeling at the edge of one wax covered wall. He mutters to himself as he feels the smooth surface, tapping it and watching the patterns of light that form. [Intuition 19+1] You watch intently, catching the idea behind the process in moments. The light is a product of the force exerted on it, and it propagates through the wax at an even speed with a luminosity based on thickness and initial impact. If there was something unusual about this wall, such as a seam or a pressplate, the light would distort in either speed or brightness as it passed through. [Observation 4] The concept is easy to understand, the practice is more difficult. You don't see anything unusual about the wall until Rob gives a grunt of satisfaction and drives his fist into the wax at about waist height. The wall clicks inwards and slides sideways, the wax that covered it peeling away. It will reform in an hour or two, and in four there won't be any trace that there was a door here at all. Rob smiles steps inside, leaving you to follow.
The hidden room is, somewhat disappointingly, just a janitorial closet. It's large enough to fit a heavy sweeper and some shelves of basic equipment, but still a far cry from roomy. It's made even less so by the fact that the far half of the room has been turned into a rudimentary torture area. A woman, seemingly in her middle years, is gagged with a strip of unidentifiable cloth and bound to the floor by cords knotted into the shelving. Judging by the bruises on her face, she's human. Her clothing is torn and burned, and the skin that you can see is red and irritated. She flinches away when you enter, trying to crawl away from you and Rob. [Failed Roll not Shown]
"Easy, sweety, easy," Rob says soothingly, smiling at the older woman. "I'm not here to hurt you today, I just want to ask you a few questions. If you can answer the questions, nothing bad will happen. You want to answer my questions, don't you dear?"
The bound woman whimpers around her gag and nods.
"That's right," Rob says, his voice still full of kindness. "Right now I just want you to nod your head if you know the answer. If you know the answer, I'll let you out of this room. If you don't, I will kill you and then eat you. If you lie, I will eat you and kill you in the process. Slowly. Nod if you understand."
The bound woman nods vigorously.
"Good," Rob coos, leaning forward to pat the woman on the head. She flinches away, but Rob ignores the reaction. "You were a Technocrat scientist, and you were a very, very arrogant person when I first met you. That was bad. You tried to bargain with me, as if you deserved anything from me. That was bad, wasn't it?
The woman nods hesitantly. [Failed Roll not shown]
"Yes! Good girl. Now, if I ask you for your authorization codes, are you going to try to ask for something in return, or are you going to give me what I want?"
The woman nods again, something close to hope flickering in her defeated eyes.
That flicker dies when Rob grabs a fistful of her hair and wrenches her head back. "Did you nod because you're going to give me what what I want, or because you still want to bargain?" Rob's voice is a hiss now, his smile replaced by a snarl of flashfire rage.
The prisoner whimpers insensibly around the gag, unable to move as Rob twists her head back. You can see tears leaking out the edges of her eyes as she struggles.
The two of them hold that position, frozen until Rob finally releases his grip, letting the woman's head fall. She tries to collapse, but the cords across her arms snap taught, keeping her upright. "I suppose I can give you the benefit of the doubt," Rob says, flexing his hand. A ridge forms along his index finger, swelling and growing under the skin. His expression doesn't even change as the thing in his hand bursts free, skin folding away to reveal a serrated talon. He leans forward, tickling the woman under the chin with the newly made claw. "After all, we have so much history together." His taloned hand slashes sideways, cutting through her bindings. "Get up, follow us, and be quiet."
You mentally revise your personality assessment of Rob.
The woman can barely walk, but Rob keeps her positioned in between the two of you. He never makes a move to remove her gag. Rob stays long enough to close the maintenance door, the clean metal panel looking strangely out of place now that the wax has been scraped free, but sets a pace as soon as it shuts. With the exception of the human's soft sniffles and uneven halting stride, the walk to the door that marks the edge of the military sector is silent. The door itself is unremarkable, a pair of wax covered totems serving to mark the importance of this hallway.
Rob produces a magkey from inside of his suit, unsealing the door and pulling the prisoner through. He reseals it the instant you're through. Freaks, the truly dangerous ones, didn't remember how to use doors, or even what they looked like, but they would plasters themselves to an entrance for days if they thought food was going to walk through. Keeping doors closed as much as possible minimized that behavior.
"Quick step," Rob whispers as soon as the door shuts, "here there be monsters."
Murnau wasn't exaggerating when he said the substation was close to the edge of the military sector. Thirty seconds takes you from the edge of the military sector to a four way junction just outside the substation. East leads back the way you came, north leads to the substation, and you're not sure where south and west go.
Rob reaches out his taloned hand to slice off the prisoner's gag, earning a wheezing cough from the woman. "Now, sweety, it's time for you to shine. Give my friend the authorization codes."
The woman nods quickly, the motion reflexive after so long unable to speak. "The codes," she begins, her voice thin and cracked. "One-six-six-seven-two, for peripheral access. Core access is V-five-I-T-D-one-four-A-N-zero-E-nine." The woman pants when she finishes, her voice out of practice. "Please, I- I did what you want. Please just let me go. I won't go back, I swear, I ju-"
"Don't worry, love, you're going to be set free. You can go wherever you want as long as it isn't here or back to the others, that's been part of my plan all along." Rob smiles at her and then turns to you. "She needs to be bleeding for this to work. Not enough for the wound to kill her, but enough to scent. You want to do the honors, or shall I?"
The woman's eyes go wide and she tries to pull away when she realizes what's about to happen, but Rob's hand snakes out and traps her arm in a vise. He's a Cellburner, and she's on the edge of collapse. She doesn't even have a chance of resisting.
Health: 589/590 -[1,6]
Degeneration: Near Nil
Carried Weight: 57 /120
Attire: Plain Technician Uniform, White. Annwn CFUS (50/50, 15lbs)
Eldjotnar Shotgun (4/4 A, 12/12 E, 10lbs)
Energy Cell x3 (Fully Charged)
20 gauge gauss canister x12
Portable Welding Kit (20lbs, Plasma, 100/100)
Mechanical Bypass Kit (10 lbs, 10/10)
Mechanic's Utility Knife (1lb)
Pad (Charged, significant free space, 1lb)
Status: Fine
---
Dominique Wakeman"That one merely got the drop on us. We know what we're dealing with now." Dom attempted to wave away his concern. "Once we have flamers we'll deal with the rest of them easily. Now let's go back. That one touched you and I'm not letting you out of my sight until I'm sure he didn't do something to you." That was spur of the moment, but she really didn't want to let him get away from her where he could get to a radio and start running his mouth about things she didn't need him to be saying. If necessary she could try to go over his head with her rank. Fennec might be on her side if she did. She couldn't be certain.
The lieutenant nods to you.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Harlequin." There's something very grim about the way he says that.
With half the soldiers in rearguard, the entire group matches back the few hundred feet that you gained. Rows of guns and soldiers on high alert greet you back in the hangar, their stances relaxing only marginally when they see their own returning. You can occasionally hear a faint buzz from Moore, [Failed roll not shown] the only indication that he's talking to somebody else on another channel. Some of what he says has obvious results; a soldier detaching to hand a vial of gray goo to the medical team, a pair medics detaching to look over the engineer and scientist that had been so affected by the gibbering man's scream, a couple marines from Moore's section detaching to root through armor crates and hand out flamers. [Observation 19] Other results are less obvious, like the way Sergeant White glances at you and disengages her safety at the same time.
You follow the lieutenant with a rising sense of unease, Ashley shadowing you with Alonso and Basilio. Every other member of the Haz-Rec team detaches before Moore reaches the ship, each falling into duties that don't require them to be in close proximity to two Technocrat officers who don't seem to be getting along. For his part, Moore may as well have forgotten that you exist. He keys open the airlock and steps through, acknowledging your presence only enough to hold the lock open so you can follow.
The inside of Moore's ship is larger than yours. In fact, the bulk of your shuttle could probably fit in the staging/cargo area that's docked to the station. It's also remarkably like the troop transports you've seen in vids. If the fiction is anything close to right, there should be cocoons on the deck below this for the soldiers to sleep in during transit, and flight control should be either above or ahead. There may be more ship-appropriate terms for those locations, but you can't remember what they are if you ever knew them. You follow Moore up a short flight of metal stairs at the far end of the bay, trying not to look curious while still satisfying your curiosity. Moore opens a thick metal door at the top of the stairs, leaving it open for you.
The room on the other side is a cabin, not exactly a spacious one, but a great deal of space to devote to one person on a ship like this. Being the leader of a HazRec squad appeared to have its perks, if only small ones. The room exceptionally barren, with all of the requisite technology crammed onto a desk bolted to the corner of the room. There's a hibernation cocoon in the opposite corner, slung beneath a more conventional raised bed. Moore doffs his helmet immediately, stripping off his damaged plating and pressing a keypad on the near wall. A two-foot square section wall slides open to reveal an open chute. "So, Harlequin, unless you have something pressing to say, I feel that I should speak first," Moore says, his voice even as he dumps his damaged armor down the chute. He turns to you when he finishes, somehow no less imposing for only wearing half his armor. "I don't think you're being complete honest with me. I don't like that, but I can understand why it has to be done. That said, I think that you're going to have to answer one question if you want to continue working with me. If I think that you've given an honest answer, then I'll extend you what trust I can. If you don't..." Moore shrugs. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. You can have your bodyguards leave, you can deactivate every comm and recording system before you say a word, but I just want one answer. Can you give me that much?"
Health: 95/128
Stamina: 116/120 (+14)
Carried Weight: 124/210
Attire: Harlequin Uniform, Styx Assault Armor (150/150, 60lbs. Integrated Power cell charged 3/3, Internal Ammunition Supply [Cerico, 14])
Inv:
Dominique's Abassy Heavy pistol -laser sight- [6, 8lbs]
.50 pistol clip (7 0.2lbs) x5
Artemis Railgun (3/3 A, 3/3 E 18lbs)
Size S-3 rail spike pack (3, 0.6lbs) x2
Cerico Shotgun (24/8 A, 16lbs)
12 gauge shells (8, 0.3lbs) x5
Stun club (50/50 11lbs)
Advanced Medical Kit (10/10) (5lbs)
Energy Cell (Full, 0.5lbs) x5
ORS (3) x2
Chitin Nodule
Status: Fine
---
Ashley FeyAsh moves to Cover Dom, just in case
You stick close to Dom, joining the two bio-armored hulks. If Dominique stays alive, you stay alive. Besides, you need to play along with the way she introduced you, which means acting as her shadow for a time.
[Hidden Roll] You feel vaguely uneasy as you tail Dominique. You don't like being out of the radio loop. It makes you feel isolated and off-balance. You could try to tap in, or at least tap Harry and see if he can relay from the I.S, but there's always the chance of being detected, which would make you look suspicious. Judging by the way that the lieutenant acted, being suspicious would be very bad right now. Still, it might be worth the risk if you have to keep this up much longer, you don't like being in the dark.
You follow Dominique, and Dominique follows Moore, and Moore takes the straightest line possible back to his ship. [Intelligence 15] You've seen the design before, and you've studied a little about it. You're not intimately familiar with how it works, but it's a basic platoon transport. If you needed to, you should be able to find your way around.
Once you're inside the ship, Moore wastes no time in heading to his quarters and stripping off his damaged armor. He seems focused entirely on Dominique, delivering a calm ultimatum: If she answers one question for him, he'll help her, if not... A lot of the alternative is implied.
[Hidden Roll] You notice that the lieutenant's hand never strays too far from his sidearm.
Health: 159/159
Charge: 159/159
Carried weight: 115/150
Attire: Plain gray under armor padding. Midguard Hardened Armor (112/140, 60lbs)
Inv:
Garou Repeating Cannon (9/12) (19lbs)
15 MM bonding charges x1 (12)
Ashley's Leanashe Assault Rifle [10/30 18lbs]
4.73 mm Caseless box mags x1
Cirri Light pistol [20/20 4lbs]
Energy cell x2
basic medical supplies [1/5] (5lbs)
Manticore Pistol [9/10 6lbs]
Mechanical Bypass kit 1/5 [3lbs]
---
James, Ann, Tyrin "Alright, then!"
STICK WITH THE PLAN and go to high ground with Anna and Tyrin.
"Probably a good idea James. We're dealing with a mountain of power coming right at us, so we need every edge we can get. So don't do anything that he can detect right away and hammer the bastard when he's in position. Tyrin, when we get in position, patch James up. We need to be in the best possible shape for the fight. Now let's move!"
Stick to the plan and head upstairs with Tyrin and James and into cover. Deactivate my mindbar and rest while we are in position, and remember to reload my new assault rifle.
Tyrin voiced his agreement, "If anything bad happens to me, however, continue with the plan and hit the presbyter.
"I believe it may affect me more than others."
Check weapon, tighten armor, and steel self for the stuff to come--also check my allies for last minute safety, especially the acclaimed technocrat.
The Unchained break up into the two groups, with Anna, Tyrin and James scrambling up the broken ceiling to take up a position on the roof while the others arrange themselves on the ground floor. [James Stamina 16] [Anna Stamina 7+1] Anna and James both take a breather on the roof, careful to keep a low profile. It would take a lot of bad luck for an enemy to see them through the smoke, but it did no good to invite disaster before the trap was even sprung.
On the ground floor, Hickie slips out the west wall, readying medical supplies and staying behind thick cover. Jeremiah and Wigs take the north-west and south-east corners respectively. Feuer takes the middle of the east wall, standing over Tarran's near corpse. Technocrat Evans slumps down on the opposite wall, slouching down in a puddle of blood left by one of the building's former residents.
Tyrin gives everyone on the top floor a once over. James needs a lot of work, and assuming enough time and no more serious cases on the ground floor, he'd work on him first. [Feuer 22 Reflex Vs Tyrin Reflex 1] [Feuer Reflex 22 Vs Damien Passive.K, Luck 14,13] Tyrin peers down to look at the erstwhile Technocrat, looking over the edge just in time to see the Marshall level the sabot rifle at the former soldier's head. The Techncrat doesn't twitch, registering nothing, sensing nothing. There's no time for Tyrin to cry out a warning or ask for explanation. The marshal pulls the trigger.
[Marshal Quickshot 15+1-2-3+2] The sabot rifle is deafening inside the small structure, and the Marshal's aim is unerring. (66*2, 132, Shield -45, 9 negated. Armor -11 (Pierce, no reduction), 2 negated. HP -76) The sabot slugs through the Technocrat's shield, then punches straight through the man's light helmet as it wasn't even there. Tyrin recoils as part of the Technocrat's head explodes, the image of the defenseless man reflexively thrashing against the sudden trauma burned into his skull. Tyrin had made hard calls before. He'd killed a woman not an hour past. But to see a man killed in cold blood, a man who'd promised to help... That was different. That was something far darker than what Tyrin did.
At least, he hoped so.
---
Damien Smith Damien complied with the plans of the Unchained, he even made a point of saying 'sir'. He could be civil, when the occasion called for it. He needed these people to trust him, perhaps not to welcome him, but to extend enough trust to let him close. Damien dragged the almost dead man over to the east wall, as asked, before settling into a carefully boneless sprawl on the west wall. A fair number of folk had died here, and pretending to be a first-glance corpse among their obliterated remains wouldn't pose much of a challenge. Damien inhaled and exhaled carefully, shallower each time, closing his eyes and settling into his role.
The sabot that struck him in the head outran its own sonic boom. There was no warning, only confusion and sudden, annihilating pain. He felt his jawbone splinter away from the side of his head, the flesh of his cheek torn completely away as the projectile ripped though him. He convulsed with pain, trying to cry out through his ruined face.
Betrayed. He'd been betrayed.
Damien lay still after the first convulsion. There was no word for the agony that consumed him. He couldn't think, he couldn't move, he could only feel. His kinetic abilities let him feel every little piece of damage the sabot had done to him, every break, every fracture, every pressure hemorrhage, everything. Part of him wanted to die. He could feel death, could feel that his kinetics were the only thing keeping his brain from bleeding its way to failure. It would be so easy to let go.
So easy to get away from the pain.
Health: 3/79
Stamina: 60/85
Carried weight: 80/150
Attire: Technocrat Uniform, Asgard Shield Armor 75/75 (150/150, 35lbs)
Inv:
Hellhound Beam SMG (30/30, 15lbs)
Abassy (6/7, 8lbs)
Laelaps Laser Rifle (12/12, 17lbs)
.50 cal pistol clip (7) x4
Energy Cell (Full) x8
First Aid Kit (7/10, 5 lbs)
Status: Hensfield, mindbar, critically wounded: Missing left cheek, left side of jawbone destroyed, cranial fractures, damaged left orbital ridge, kinetically controlled internal bleeding.
---
James, Anna, Tyrin Before anyone can ask what the hell just happened, the edge of the damping field hits. [Anna, Tyrin, James, Feuer, Hickie, Jeremiah, Wigs P.Empathetics 16+2, 15+1, 15, 3+1, 14, 8, 11] [Wigs Luck 1] Anna, Tyrin, and James ward it off effectively, shielding their minds before the field can take effect. Jeremiah emulates, though somewhat less skillfully. Feuer and Wigs, however, have an almost identical reaction to the field. They both suck in air as if they'd taken an icicle to the stomach- their eyes focusing on nothing at all.
"I can't... do anything. It's
gone," Wigs says slowly, his eyes distant. Feuer wears the same expression at first, but he pulls himself together faster.
"Goddamnit," the Marshal curses, shaking himself. "Wigs! Pull yourself together and grab your weapon, kinetics aren't the only way to solve this. Going to make it a harder though..." He mutters, shaking his head. "Captain," he calls up to Anna, "Wigs and I can't reach our kinetics. If your man's speed estimates are correct, we should still have a little time before the presbyter arrives. We may need to adapt tactics."
[Luck 5] [James Observation 17] James, peeking sideways over the roof, catches a glimpse of motion in the smoke to the north-east. A swirling shadow that draws closer by the moment. It's too obscure to make out any features, but there's enough detail to observe to major discrepancies with the incoming object. As the shadow passes the diffuse lights spawned by smoke shrouded fires, the lights dim or die. Stranger still, the silhouette does not appear to be walking. Rather, it appears to be gliding a foot or two above the surface of the ground at the speed of a hard run. You have a matter of seconds.
((Ambush/Combat Will commence next round in full.))
Health: 56/79
Stamina: 85/85 (+3)
Carried weight: 95/150
Attire: Colonist Worksuit, Limbo Medium Body Armor (68/115, 35lbs)
Inv:
Energy Cell x1 (Full)
Artemis Railgun (1/3E, 1/3A, 18lbs)
Kapre Light Rifle (11/15, 16lbs)
Medical Kit (9/10, 5lbs)
First Aid Kit (10/10, 5lbs)
Bandages (4/5, 2lbs)
Combat Knife (1lbs)
ALR Broadbeam (5/10 E, 14lbs, Aimed)
.30 Cal pistol clip (10) x1
Field Surgery Kit (9/10, 5lbs)
Satyr Light Pistol (25/25, 4lbs)
Technocrat Tags
Status: New Hensfield, South-east.
Health: 15/88
Stamina: 66/100 (+3)
Carried weight: 171/300
Attire: Exarch Dress uniform [8lbs] James' Light Body armor 19/50 (47/50) [25lbs]
Inv:
Renfield SMG (10/30, 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 2/7 -Frangible Rounds-)
.50 caliber Frangible pistol clips (7) x1
Dybbuk Flechette Canister Rifle (1/2 35 lbs)
20 mm flechette canisters (x2, 1 lb)
Emergency VIP Drop Suit (30lbs, Armor 35/35)
Irin Combat Shotgun (3/6, 15lbs)
Status: New Hensfield
Health: 46/95
Stamina: 60/105
Carried weight: /130
Attire: Colonist Worksuit, Limbo Medium Body Armor (81/115, 25lbs)
Inv:
Kapre Light Rifle (11/15, 16lbs)
Renfield SMG (10/30, 10lbs)
Combat Knife x2 (1ls)
.30 cal rifle clip (15/15) x1
.115 spike pack (30/30) x1
.225 Convention magazine (25/25) x1
.220 Gauss Magazine (35/35)
Combat Blade (8lbs)
Jormungandr Assault Rifle (5/35A 65/70E, 16lbs) -Reflex Sight-
Satyr Light Pistol (25/25, 4lbs)
Status: New Hensfield, South-east.
Author
Topic: Deviation-22. The End of All Things. (Read 536284 times)