Contract #4: Formula 42

[Stephen]

The shimmering cloud of crystal shards swirls violently as Val's second burst drives through it, directly toward the beast it issued from.

(( Short narrow burst. ))

[GM Nick]

Ranged Combat (Val)

[Automatics (6) + AGI (5) + Smartlink (2) + RC (-3) = 4]
3 6 2 6 4 3 4 3 6 5
[REA (4) = 1]
6 1 3 1 **Glitch!**

Damage Resistance (CB4)

[BOD (22) = 4]
2 3 3 6 3 5 2 1 1 2 3 1 1 2 6 4 4 4 2 4 4 5

< 7P DAMAGE >

Val squeezes off another short burst after his fully automatic deluge, shattering his target.

[Stephen]

(( * Fable hero pose * ))

[John]

The creature the hammered at him now an exploded plume of crystalline dust, Max collects himself for a moment. The elf unconsciously wipes the blood running from his nose with the back of his left hand as he pushes himself up with the right. Shattered glass and ferrocrete debris dig into his palm as he hefts his weight first from his knees, then to one knee, and eventually to his feet. Further blood begins to bead across his wide palm, making his grip on Marlowe's handle slip slightly as he takes the weapon up and to bear against the last remaining aggressor. The elf aims for the hole created by Tyros's expertly placed gash through the glimmering rock exoskeleton, and fires.

(( SA, +4 DV ))

[GM Nick]

Ranged Combat (Max)

[Shotguns (8) + AGI (10) + Smartlink (2) + Called Shot (-4) = 3]
4 5 1 3 4 5 3 1 3 5 4 1 4 1 1 2
[REA (4) = 2]
3 5 4 5

Damage Resistance (CB1)

[BOD (22) = 11]
4 6 5 4 4 5 6 2 4 1 5 2 6 2 5 6 6 1 2 6 1 6

< 1P DAMAGE >

Max grits his teeth against the diamond spray that blasts from the fissure as his slug slams into it.

[John]

(( Fire again, damn you! ))

[GM Nick]

Ranged Combat (Max)

[Shotguns (8) + AGI (10) + Smartlink (2) + Called Shot (-4) = 5]
6 3 6 2 2 2 6 5 2 3 3 3 5 2 3 1
[REA (4) = 1]
3 3 5 1

Damage Resistance (CB1)

[BOD (22) = 1]
2 3 1 2 4 2 4 3 2 3 3 1 1 6 3 1 4 4 2 2 3 4

< 15P DAMAGE >

A cloud of mineral dust explodes from behind the behemoth as Max blows a clean hole through the creature, who promptly shatters.

[John]

Marlowe now completely empty of live munitions, Max instincively begins reloading as he drops his weapon and replaces his finger at rest on the trigger guard. The elf surveys the damage and grins mischievously despite the headache thrumming in his skull and the blood dripping down his lip. As new shells clack into Marlowe's chamber, the elf looks about the group and asks,

"Everybody okay? Sinjin, you seem like you're having a hard go of it today."

The last of the possible eight rounds slides into the weapon and Max returns his attention to the hole through which the geological monstrosities poured, his focus on their goal renewed and his instincts honed to a killing edge. Cautiously, he approaches the entryway to the further unknown and peeks through.

[GM Nick]

The BioDrive employee gingerly retrieves the canister from where Tyros had set it down prior to combat. He inspects the seal.

"If you're going down to the final level, you'll need to take the cargo elevator. The terrorists must have disabled the security system, so you shouldn't have any problem operating it."

[John]

Max looks back over his shoulder to the frazzled scientist, and asks,

"Can you tell us how to get there?"

[Elliott]

Tyros walks back to the employee, his ghostly voice deep and dark, "Hand it over, mate."

Taking the canister back from the employee, Tyros places it in a coat pocket, where it promptly disapears beneath the invisible material.

"If this is Element 13, how many Elements are there in the basement?"

((I looked back through the pages and I can't see where the element number we are looking for was identified. Which one is it?))

[GM Nick]

(( You're looking for Formula 42. ))

The employee shudders as the canister disappears out of his hands.

"Be careful with that, it's highly unstable."

Turning to Max,

"Proceed past these specimen chambers and through the decontamination area. The elevator is just beyond."

[John]

Max nods, and returns with,

"Thank you. Like I said, head up."

The elf intimates skyward with his pointer finger, and then disappears through the hole creates by the golems.

[Stephen]

After slapping a new magazine into his FN HAR's lower receiver and cycling the action, Val glances up and nods a cool farewell to the BioDrive tech. While he feels rather guilty about giving him such a hard time a few moments ago, he's not about to let it show. What's gotten into me? he asks himself. He shelves the thought for another day. Now is certainly not the time for soul-searching introspection. Eye on the ball, 'mano.

Small drifts of twinkling crystal shards crunch underneath his booted feet as Val stalks after Max with his rifle at ready-low.

[GM Nick]

Max and Val pass through the abandoned specimen chambers which have now totally been claimed by the snaking, vine-like crystalline growth. After separating a sheet of hanging plastic, they set foot into a flat, empty room. The mineral invasion ends abruptly, as if bifurcated by an invisible line. The only obvious sound in the room comes from the droplets of disinfectant still dripping from the nozzles on the wall.

Infiltration Test (Val)

[Infiltration (3) + AGI (5) = 3]
6 3 6 3 2 4 5 4
[Perception (2) + INT (4) = 1]
4 4 2 1 1 5

Val eases into the room, eyes scanning the right perimeter as Max sweeps left. His body freezes as he picks out a lone terrorist rummaging through a canvas bag, oblivious to his presence.

[Elliott]

((LOL. I suppose that makes sense given the title of the run...sometimes I'm an idiot.))

The big invisible troll gives one last passing glance around the room, eyes resting briefly on the slain crystal golems. What manner of magic can create such beasts? And are they totally mindless, or can they be controlled? Questions to be answered another day, perhaps, but Tyros feels the familiar sense of burning curiosity in he put of his stomach that he has felt on several occasions recently. There is much work to be done to unlock the various mysteries the Troll and his Firestarter comrades keep uncovering. Tyros may be the only one to recognize their import, but it's his roll to grasp the astral anomalies his friends miss. Everyone has their part to play.

Shouldering his massive blade, Tyros moves to follow Max and Val onwards into the facility. Who knows what they will find next?

[John]

Max creeps toward the solitary eco terrorist with Marlowe at attention. Once he is close but still without immediate arm's reach, he grumbles aggressively,

"Move and you're dead, drekbag."

[Stephen]

Val keeps his rifle trained on the terrorist.

"Yeah. What he said."

[GM Nick]

The terrorist freezes and moves his hands away from the canvas bag.

[John]

Max inches closer to the man who stands now in the waning moments of his life, and demands,

"What's in the bag?"

[Stephen]

Val lowers his rifle with a shrug.

"Thanks for the assist. Looks like you got it from here."

He wanders around exploring the rest of the room, admiring the elf's legendary initiative.

[GM Nick]

The La Purga thug says nothing and remains motionless.

[John]

Max aims the gun swiftly down at the back of the man's right knee and fires.

[John]

Marlowe's report slaps against the walls of the room with a dull THWIP, bouncing no further and seeming to alert no one. The terrorist crumples toward the site of the damage with an agonized yelp and hits the floor, his ragged knee immediately spurting blood into thick, ruddy pools. The terrorist groans and gurgles his way through various half-formed curses as he paws desperately but gingerly at the injury and draws back gloved finger tipped in blood. The wound itself has torn away better than half of the connective tissues comprising the joint between the terrorist's upper and lower leg. Max considers the future plight of the man before him, certain that even should he walk away from this meeting that he would never walk normally again.

A thick sweat has beaded on the terrorist's brow in response to the trauma, and Max can smell the deepweed and liquor on his breath as the elf bears down on him. Thrusting Marlowe's muzzle under the man's chin, Max growls,

"Now you know the penalty for non-compliance. Where are your friends??"

[Elliott]

((And you call Tyros a savage!))

Tyros runs into the room, ready for action after hearing Marlow's familiar report. Seeing the unarmed terrorist bleeding out on the floor, the troll lifts an invisible eyebrow at Max and shrugs.

"Doesn't want to talk, hmm. Maybe I can help..."

Wiggling an invisible finger at the stricken thug (centering), Tyros delves into the man's mind for what he might know about the defenses that await the team on the level below (mind probe, f3).

[Stephen]

Val's head snaps up, brow furrowed, at the report of Max's shotgun and the subsequent scream. His blood begins to pump faster at the sight of the man's mangled knee cap. Val watches Max's finger quiver on the trigger, and witnesses a familiar gesture from Tyros. He decides to intervene before things get too out of hand, and stalks back toward the now-wounded terrorist.

"Lo siento sobre mis amigos, 'mano. No tienen paciencia."

[John]

As the man continues to squirm, Max takes the barrel of the shotgun from under his chin and presses instead the butt of the weapon down and onto the exploded knee joint. Hard. The result is a frantic and ineffectual grasping and batting at Marlowe's stock as the man's nervous system is flooded with an overload of electrical impulses which must be lighting up his brain Harlem at Kwanza. His groans take on a desperate, deep-guttural buzzing quality as he struggles.

The elf looks back over his shoulder, cool as a cucumber, and shoots his comrades a look that tells them with a furrowed brow and slight nod that 'I'm in control; this isn't going to get out of hand.'

Max turns back to the terrorist to see if his visual reasurrance to his compatriots had given him away. The deep crow's feet fissures being winced into the man's face were flooded with tears streaking from his clenched eyes; the terrorist had seen nothing.

Max releases the pressure on his weapon, returns to a less aggressive stance that inflicts neither immediate pain or threatens imminent death, and says,

"Look, we can do this all day if you want-- I've even got some stim patches to keep you from passing into shock..." Max sees the man's eyes beginning to fade, delivers his left cheek a sharp SLAP with his right hand, and continues, "and some trauma patches to keep you from blacking out from blood loss. Just tell us what we want to know and you might just live to hug another tree."

[GM Nick]

The terrorist's breath comes in ragged, reverberating gasps through the gas mask.

"They're... they're on the bottom level, breaching the clean room. There are six of them, counting El Jeffe."

[John]

Max gives the terrorist a series of light smacks on the cheek, and says,

"Now there we go! Wasn't so hard, was it? What's El Jeffe?"

[GM Nick]

Mind Probe (3) (Tyros)

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) + Power Focus (2) = 4]
2 4 2 3 2 6 4 5 5 6 2 3 4 1
[WIL (4) = 2]
5 2 5 3

Resist Drain (4) (Tyros)

[WIL (4) + LOG (6) + Centering (4) + Foc. Con. (2) = 3]
4 2 2 4 4 6 2 3 1 5 5 2 2 4 1 2

< 1S DAMAGE >

Tyros dives into terrorist's mind.

[GM Nick]

"He's the boss, estupido. He's going to frag you all up."

[John]

Max looks coolly into the eyes of the eco-terrorist, and says,

"Not likely, culo. Thanks for your cooperation. Say hello to Earth Mother Gaia for me."

The elf raises Marlowe in a single, fluid movement, captures the man's fleeting moments of life in his sights, and paints the room beyond with blood, brain, and flecks of skull and flesh.

Max looks back over his shoulder at the half-disapproving, half-incredulous looks of his teammates, and justifies,

"What? Guy was an asshole."

[Drew Buddy]

Adams walks up to the corpse and kneels down before looking back up at Max.

"Yeah, but an execution? I don't know, Max. We've killed a lot of people, but not like this."

He shakes his head,

"Let's get to the bottom level."

[John]

Max looks at Doc, and says,

"Do you think it would have been safe to leave him alive? He'd have killed any of us in the blink of an eye. What's the difference between geeking him while he has a gun in his hand and geeking him before he has a chance to pick it up?"

The elf goes about the business of picking around in the duffel through which the dead terrorist was rooting.

[GM Nick]

Doc pushes through the plastic sheets at the far side of the decontamination room, not bothering to hide the irritated grimace on his face. He's tired. Tired of science-fiction monsters. Tired of Max's addiction and his penchant for violence. Tired of the oppressive heat that reminds him, by the minute, of the last place in the world he ever wants to go back to. The anger boils in his gut, surfacing toxic memories and emotions that have been compartmentalized for years. The anger is burning a short fuse, transforming rapidly into outright panic.