Run #7: Through the Looking Glass

[John]

If there's a part of Max's brain that is conscious of anything other than the need to get away from the live grenade, it's the part that finds it funny that Tyros-- who has fragged up well more than his fair share on the quest for Deus-- is so insolently insisting that he had control over a guard who had continued actively attacking the team after the troll claimed that he 'had himself a puppet.' But that part of his mind is very distant indeed.

Max also dives as far away from the impending explosion as possible.

[GM Nick]

Tyros follows suit and leaps for cover.

There's cacophonous --boom-- as the grenade detonates the cabinet and sends smoldering papers and bits of furniture flying across the room.

[John]

The team hides as the room rattles from the force of the impact. Following the explosion, a cloud of ferrocrete dust hangs heavy in the room as small pieces of rubble rain down on the floor. It almost sounds like rain. What's left of the enforcer is strewn about the room away from the place where the grenade had landed-- his remains devastated by the force of the blast. As the dust clears, Max re-enters the room with caution and searches for his gear, hoping desperately to put an end to the separation between he and his trusty shotgun Marlowe.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc starts opening cabinets one-by one. He needs his rifle badly, and his pants worse.

[GM Nick]

After several minutes of searching, the runners locate their gear in various compartments.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc breathes a sigh of relief as he zips up his his pants and buckles the large, thick leather belt around them. He slings the SMG under his left shoulder, picks up the rifle, and checks the action on both weapons. He makes sure the grenade launcher on the bottom of the rifle is filled with high explosive grenades.

After performing this self-check, he holds the HVAR out to Rawhide. "Any interest in this? I'm not taking it with me."

< Okay, Milly, we've got our gear. Can you plot us a way out of this mess? >

[John]

The elf already has his armor on and the rest of his gear secured safely in place. Taking Marlowe in his hands, Max loads the shotgun with armor piercing rounds. Stretching his neck to the right side, his vertebrae let out a series of sickening, meaty pops. Gruffly, Max grumbles to the team,

"Let's go commit some fraggin' deicide."

[Elliott]

Tyros glares at Max and Doc as he finishes zipping up his form fitting body armor and shrugs into his massive greatcoat. Picking up his beloved claymore, he rests its naked blade on his shoulder. "Did it ever occur to you that having one of these guys alive and under my control would be useful for things like how the frag we kill the AI and which way the exit might be? That was te second one you've killed in the last couple minutes. Do you understand that crushing someone's conscious thought and imposing your will on them is extremely difficult and physically taxing? I can't keep doing it forever. What the hell was the AI trying to learn from us in those dreams anyway? Do we really need to kill it, can it even be killed? Maybe we should just make a run for it."

[John]

Max's patience is wearing thin,

"God dammit, if you want to run, shut the frag up and run away. You know just as well as we do what happens if Deus is allowed reach out into the rest of the world. This isn't about money anymore. This is about making sure the entire fraggin' planet doesn't fall under Deus's control. You told us you had him under control, but he kept attacking us. By all appearances, you were as full of drek as you apparently also are fear. No matter how much you may claim you're controlling someone, if that someone continues trying to kill me, I'M GOING TO KILL HIM THE FRAG FIRST. Don't like it? Then shut the frag up until you can get your hands dirty."

The elf collects his temper as it begins to flare out of control,

"Look, you saved my ass on the space station, so I owe you one. But this isn't the time for this kind of drek. We need to keep moving. That enforcer wasn't going to be able to tell us a fraggin' thing and we all know it. He was a goon-- plain and simple. Milly is our best bet for help on how to put Deus down for good. Hopefully those ghouls that chased after Doc and me will help cover our presence here. Bottom line is that we need to push forward and take out Deus before the drek hits the fan any more than it already has."

[GM Nick]

(( Move is done. Let's do this! ))

<Alright guys, once you're ready, proceed to the back of the room. There should be a service door. It leads to what looks like--it's gotta be some kind of hangar. Be careful, I'm seeing large amounts of encrypted data being moved around here.>

A simple shuttered door stands at the back of the room, instilling a sense of primal foreboding on any who gaze at it.

[John]

Max moves to one side of the door, his shotgun butted against his right shoulder with its muzzle pointed to the floor. The elf's finger rests just off the trigger, flirting with the trigger guard instead. Waiting for another team member to take a position on the other side of the door, Max lifts the shutter a couple of inches and peers under with his flexicam.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc takes position at the other side of the door, gun similarly at the ready.

[Elliott]

Still invisible, Tyros hefts his sword and stands to the side of the door as well, ready to follow his gun toting comrades through. "You make a lot of fragging assumptions Max. We don't know shit about our situation. The UCAS could be on its way to bomb this place to atoms for all we know. Maybe your puny little elf brain can't grasp the possibility of this, but that grunt knew a fragload more than you do about what's going on. Oh, and if you suggest i'm a coward once more, i'll tie you up for a week and force you to quit those little pills you always pop as your synthetic cruch cold turkey. Then we'll see who is the coward."

[John]

Max is irritated that Tyros is continuing to bicker given the situation,

"What part of 'this isn't the time' didn't you understand, trog?"

[Elliott]

"The part where you take action that jeopardize our safety, you racist little shit. Now open that door and let's move!"

[John]

Max snorts an amused laugh at Tyros's assertion that he is the safety liability on the team, but otherwise lets it drop. If the troll needs the last word to feel important, he can have it.

(( Funny how Tyros is insisting that Max open the door ASAP instead of cautiously check what's on the other side while accusing him of endangering the team's safety. ))

[Drew Buddy]

While his teammates quarrel, doc slips a dragonfly out of his pocket, and chucks it under the door.

He jumps into the drone, and takes a look around.

[GM Nick]

The room beyond is a vast vault, with a ceiling a good 10 meters from the floor. The length of it runs nearly 100 meters. Along the walls at regular intervals are giant mechanisms, whirring and cranking away at some unknown task. Power cables, as thick as Tyros' bicep wind along the ground like slumbering serpents. The primary walkway seems to be deserted, at least according to the dragonfly's optical sensor.

The floor seems grated and a liquid can be seen shimmering just below.

[John]

Max rolls open the door cautiously and steps into the vault with his shotgun drawn and at the ready.

[GM Nick]

The noise and heat of the room blast Max as he hefts the shutter. It simmers like a jungle inside, the vaporous heat rising from the mysterious fluids beneath the walkway.

[John]

Max peers down to the liquid below and asks,

"Any ideas, Doc?"

Max scans the expanse of the room looking for signs of danger.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc commands the drone to fly up toward the ceiling, and start a zig zag patrol toward the other end of the room. He sets a condition for the drone to alert him if it spots any people, creatures, or other drones.

He steps through the door.

< Milly, we need two things: The location of Deus's core, and a way out. What can you find? >

[GM Nick]

<I have no idea where you are now, other than the fact that whatever is in that room is consuming a ton of power. I guess your only choice is to proceed straight ahead. Lo is trying to call in favors and get airtime on a satellite so that we can pinpoint your location, but it's going to take time.

Shutting Deus down is not a simple task. There's no telling how many hosts he's propagated in the last 72 hours. You need to learn more about his current incarnation in order to take him out.>

[Drew Buddy]

Doc grunts,

< Got it. >

He takes a closer look at the machinery in the room, and the liquid down below. (( Roll Engineering ))

[GM Nick]

Engineering Test

[Engineering (4) + LOG (7) = 5]
6 6 1 5 6 3 2 3 2 5 4

[John]

Max continues pressing into the chamber. The elf is on edge, but the reassurance of having his gear back in hand is soothing his jangled nerves. If only the fraggin' head ache would go away.

[GM Nick]

The machines chugging along throughout the vault are 3D printers, each busily working on a particular creation. Each machine sports a series of copper cooling tubes that plunge into the liquid--presumably coolant--below. Steam roils off the surface of the bubbling lake and rises through the grated walkway.

[John]

Max looks down at the lake of coolant,

"Nothing like sitting atop a giant cauldron of explosives. Might be good for us to bear in mind if we need an escape route or a way to bury the facility."

Max moves on, hoping to get out of this chamber lest a firefight break out.

[GM Nick]

As Max passes the initial set of 3D printers, the one on his right-hand side shudders and goes silent. There's a pleasant tone and a hatch near the base opens.

A crab-like drone the size of a dachshund slides out. A single optical sensor extends from its composite carapace and examines Max's leg.

[John]

Max stands still and ready to destroy it.

[Drew Buddy]

Doc shoulders his hand-held cannon, ready to open fire.

< Milly, how much control do you have over the drones in this place? Are they on auto, or rigged? >

[Elliott]

Tyros moves forward down the walkway, his invisable body shimmering in the steam. Keeping an eye on the power cables, Tyros scans ahead for where they lead. <"When in doubt, follow the power cords. Isn't that the saying?">

[GM Nick]

The crab reaches out a tentative appendage and gently prods Max's foot.

"Identify these surroundings," says the drone in a tiny, modulated voice.

[John]

Max withdraws his toe briskly and says in an uneven tone,

"Production room."

[Drew Buddy]

Doc tries to see if the drone is in a default, unrestricted administrator mode.

He hopefully says, "Entities in front of you are protected targets. Load targets into IFF file. Your commands are to defend these targets against all other entities."