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[IC] Eclipse Phase: Mission 1 - New Recruits
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Henrique threw his adversary against the alley wall offhandedly, looking with a snarl at the other one, who was at that very moment backing up with nothing less than terror in his eyes. "Oh don't worry, you're next, darling."
"Ahh! AHH... what... what's happening?!"
It dawned on Henrique then, and he smiled, looking at the tiny box which was ANDI. The thug still couldn't see what was going on, through his AR. It was like a thousand flashbangs were going off inside his head.
His grin grew teeth. "Now this is going to be even easier than I thought."
He makes fray, but since you rolled higher on the dice, you win the roll.
Shock test (1d100=19)
Makes his durabilityx3(?) test.
SOMx3 (1d100=77)
Fails his knockdown save.
He has taken 6 total damage, and is knocked down.
Other thug is struggling against ANDI.
Realizing he'd been noticed, Ted picked up his pace. "Well, looks like it's all or nothing then."
His mark looked around wildly for someplace to escape, finally deciding on jumping onto the roof of a two story building, though barely making it up before Ted arrived.
Fails freerunning. If Ted can succeed he'll catch him, otherwise he'll remain at his current distance.
Six seconds. Good speed. Let's see how I can do on the second wave of motherfuckers.
[Ivan] Be advised. Krash has taken down her three targets and is moving towards DeVora's. Pursue and capture Undron Hill.
Quick: Stow disabler.
Walk towards DeVora's.
Krash is bringing it.
[Raye] Ted, that's not a good id--
[Theodore] Not now!
He leaps up toward the roof... and immediately realizes he misjudged, edge hitting him squarely in the gut. Gasping for air, he slowly pulls himself up as Undron regains his lead.
"Dammit!"
Well, that went about expected.
Laser pulser's damage (2d10=9)
She looked around as she stepped in close to the club door, senses straining to catch sight of the people she could feel watching her.
[KRASH] Shut up, Ivan. I'm listening here.
Stepping as slowly as you can bring yourself to go, you peer through the door, pushing it open a bit farther. The inside is dark, but bathed in the strobes and lasers of the rooms beyond. It's difficult to see anything inside, but you get the distinct sensation that whatever might have been in here before either no longer was, or was making themselves scarce at your presence.
1d100 = 10 versus like, 95 skill or something when you take in specialisation
Assuming he fails Fray, damage is:
1d10 + 5 = 7 plus another 10 for making the roll with an MoS of more than 50, I think? If so, damage of 17, plus eelware shock test.
[Irgvin] Hey... that looks like some sort of passkey.
...yeah. You hit him.
Knockdown, KO, Eelware (1d100=3, 1d100=82, 1d100=25)
Makes KO test, and eelware test. Fails the KO test.
Total of 24/30 damage on him.
[Raye] Be careful, Ted! We're losing him but we're also over three blocks away from the rest of the team. You don't want to get into an altercation by yourself.
[Theodore] Is the tactical network still up and running?
Theodore quickly checks his AR to make sure he's still got the combat feeds. A quick glance at either Krash or Henrique reveals that, indeed, the TacNet is still functioning perfectly.
[Raye] Of course. Our link is all green.
[Theodore] Perhaps a little too green for my taste, or should I say a little too red...
[Raye] What do you want to do, Ted?
Irgvin ignores Gideon's habitual sarcasm and shoots the man in the torso as he's trying to get back up. He'll see to the passkey later.
Laser pulser's damage (2d10=9) ...what, again?
[Raye] Ted. You don't have time for this... TED!
He snaps back from his brief reverie.
[Raye] Time's past up Ted.
"I'm going to regret this," he says and jumps down after his mark.
Ted double and triple checked the TacNet to ensure he was safely tethered to his team, though the technology was generally trustworthy. Everyone knew that it was not an everyday occurrence to be disconnected from the mesh, or from a PAN, and by Ted's count, he was the one on the offensive here.
Raye automatically enlarged a map for him as he ran, to aid him in negotiating the alleyways in the chase.
[Theodore] Thanks for checking the TacNet, Raye. The smarter part of me tells me I should hang back and wait for the team, but I'm already waist deep in this.
[Raye] Just be careful. No sense in overextending ourselves.
[Theodore Guys, I've chased him to an alleyway. Over the building, then north. I'll let you know what I find.
He dashed into the alley behind his mark, hoping to catch a break. It's not the time to be worrying... he says to himself, though it doesn't help him too much. The hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand straight up. Something was coming. He turned the corner to watch his mark turn yet another, and though Theodore was certain he could catch up quickly, even considering being out of shape as he might, he noticed something, as apparently did Raye.
[Raye] TED! Watch it! That alley's a dead end, the one he just dodged into, and a short one.
He checked the GPS- she was right, of course. It looked like the stub of the alleyway could be barely five or ten feet long from the map- but he had just seen the man sprint into it as quickly as his legs would carry him around the corner.
[Raye] His signal on the TacNet has completely decayed.
Great... Likely he was now encrypting his mesh ID and signal, it would be difficult to follow him on the TacNet without visual contact. Here goes...
He stepped up to the corner and peered carefully around it to see what was going on. He saw the man pawing at the block wall making up the end of the alleyway, no more than seven or eight feet away. It didn't look like he's been spotted, though the man was frantic, obviously aware that he was being pursued. The pawing continued for four or five seconds until he finally found the block he was looking for.
Ted squinted a little bit, trying to get a better view. He couldn't quite tell what his mark was doing, but he had opened up a small compartment in the wall, about the size of a breadbox, though Ted couldn't see what, if anything, was inside from his angle.
"Hey!" he shouted, stepping into the opening of the alley. "What are you doing?"
The man, now almost crazed looking, his hand halfway inside the compartment, looked up at him, eyed wide. He quickly grabbed something from inside, clutching it deep within his fist and bringing it close to his chest, all the while muttering something beneath his breath.
"Stop!" Ted continued.
[Raye] Ted, I don't like this...!
The man took a step back and looked around frantically, having obviously nowhere to escape to.
"Shit. Don't do anything stupid, buddy."
"Step... step back!" he snapped. "Step away! You'll never find him! Never take him!"
The professor answered as levelly as he could. "I'm not here to hurt you, I just want to ask you a couple questions."
The word 'question' seemed to strike a nerve. "Questions? No! No questions! Questions... those will be answered in time... no... Now IS NOT THE TIME FOR QUESTIONS!"
A bit taken aback, Theodore took a few steps backward, attempting to show the man he meant no hostility toward him. He looked down, noticing the man's free hand twitching.
[Raye] Ted...
"It's okay..." he said calmingly. "We can take a moment. Just calm down."
[Theodore] Guys? A little help maybe?
[ANDI] Friends, it seems that the professor is in a bit of a scrape. Perhaps we could rush to his aid?
[Gideon] I don't know, we're pretty busy shooting helpless men in the legs over here.
[Irgvin] Shut up, Gideon.
[Gideon] Scathing.
[Theodore] Yeah, I've got our friend cornered. He's uh... not taking too kindly to that.
[Henrique] Well, darlings, I think I've got these two taken care of. Why don't you make sure the doctor doesn't wet himself out there?
It took Theodore by surprise. As sudden as a moment's passing, the gun had been drawn. A tiny thing, but where transhumanity is concerned, size rarely matters in terms of firepower. The professor's eyes immediately went wide.
"NO. NO MORE QUESTIONS!"
His heart beat.
The gun was pointed straight at him.
The seconds dragged on like years.
He takes the gun...
Was this the end?
...points it at the back of his neck, just at the top of his spine.
He realized what was about to happen.
The man closed his eyes.
His stomach churned.
CRACK
Blood, tendon, bone, and electronics splayed everywhere.
[Raye] Ted, Jesus, that was a rail pistol!
[KRASH] What the hell just happened over there?!
He stood there in awe, his jaw hanging perhaps lower than it ever had. He had never seen anyone die before... much less by destruction of a cortical stack. To destroy your own stack...? He could only assume he had a backup. He could only hope...
[Raye] Ted! Are you alright?
He collapsed to his knees, staring, speechless.
[Raye has send a low priority distress call to the TacNet.]
He managed to let out a whisper. "Why..." It took another short moment before he was able to regain his senses.
[Theodore] I'm okay... but our friend isn't. he uh...
[Theodore] ...stack... gone.
[Irgvin] He blew his stack?
[Theodore] Rail pistol, like Raye said, right to it.
[Wallace] We are currently responding to your distress beacon! We shall be there shortly.
[Henrique] Yeah but we might wanna be prepared to clean up. Never good to leave a mess... especially a dead one.
[Irgvin] Funny, I thought that was my line.
[Henrique] Seriously, though? Blew his own stack, huh? Must have been heavy, whatever he was carrying.
[KRASH] Whatever, let's just get over there and find what we can find.
[Theodore] Yeah, I don't want to deal with this mess. Watching it was enough for me, thanks.
[Irgvin] Alright, we'll all be there shortly. Hang tight.
[Gideon] Aren't you going to have one for the road? You could shoot the other leg.
[Irgvin] Shut up, Gideon.
[Henrique] Well, that was quite the palate cleanser darlings! Let's all go ogle the body. And did I hear the poor unfortunate loony left a rail pistol behind him?
[Caliban] Don't worry sir, I will take detailed readings.
[KRASH] My three are all down, one survivor. We need a place to bring the prisoners, see what we can get out of their stupid-ass stacks. Anyone got ideas? I can ping the local @-net to see if we can grab sanctuary if nobody else has anything. This little tussle might get some attention and I don't want (c) on my ass.
Message sent, she unsheathed her cyberclaws, forcing them into the heads of the deactivated synthmorphs and frying their stacks with a burst from her eelware. <You've got a backup, case-brains. No need to report my face.>
<This is quite the place, Rem. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting this kind of quality.>
<Nothing less than that for a fellow Barsoomian. We are brothers in the cause, you know.>
<Look, you guys, this is really cute, this reunion and all, really it is. But we sure this place has no surveillance?>
...
It's awhile before Edmund regains consciousness, and when he does the process is slow and arduous. Still bleeding, though slowly, he groans, and his head rolls about as he attempts to regain enough energy to lift it.
The lot of you take a look around the room. It's a small-ish workspace, in one of the secondary domes of Aarhus. Though it's obvious this particular space has long since been tenantless, it's not quite what you would call dilapidated. The walls and ceiling are all fully intact, and have all been reinforced with soundproof paneling. A single plain metal table sits in the center of the room, with several chairs pulled up to it. Edmund sits on one side of the table, bound tightly to his chair.
A single light bulb, hanging from its own cord, fabricated to resemble old pre-fall police dramas, illuminates the room.
...
[Henrique] Nice place we've got ourselves here, darlings. Kind of a fixer-upper though.
[ANDI] Assuming it is discretion we are trying to achieve, this looks like it will be a perfect spot.
[Theodore] Indeed. Let's try and make sure discretion is what we've got here. Hey, why is this place empty anyway...? Do you think he keeps it for...?
...
"What... where...?" He looks up at you all, his eyes meeting each of yours for a moment, and then his eyes narrow into slits. "I'm not going to tell you anything. I won't talk. Just save us both some time and blow my stack."
He spits, looking with disgust and defiance back at you.
...
<Of course. No sound, no video, no nothing. This area is even cut off from mesh access except by the wired terminal over there.>
<We owe you one, Rem.>
<It is nothing. You have one hour to finish whatever you need to finish. When I come back, I don't want to remember you asked me to come here, yes?>
<Of course.>
Who knows, he might even get a chance to do some of the asking. And by asking, he meant pummelling.
[Henrique] All right darlings, in addition to whatever safeguards are in the room, I've also white-noised us. We'll keep it a private little soiree, yes?
"There's three ways this can go, Edmund. You can tell us everything we want to know, and go back to your most recent backup. We can beat you over and over, until you're finally in enough pain to tell us what we want."
She smiled and slapped him across the face casually, the force behind the blow enough to send his head snapping back, the crackle of eelware clearly audible. Edmund groaned pain, blood trickling from his split lip.
"Or we can hack your fucking mind, which you can't do shit about, and leave you as a drooling husk of fucking meat in the street as a warning to Creation. We can find out where your last backup is, as well. I wouldn't mind frying that, if you want to be a bitch."
Krash hopped off the table and walked around behind the captive, looking at the others. "I think that you already made your choice, though. Anyone want to get a few hits in? This shell's not long for the world... with a conscious host, at least."
Irgvin wanders over to Edmund, not even making eye contact, speaking as if he's discussing an inanimate object with the party.
"You know I knew an Ed once- an Eduardo, actually. He was a prick. But he wasn't a prick forever! Psychosurgery is a wonderful thing." He taps the side of his own head knowingly.
His lip is still bleeding and his cheek is red-raw, but Edmund sniffs, clearly unimpressed.
"We disagree on one point," Irgvin tells Krash breezily, "drooling husks aren't fun- they aren't challenging. Killing higher brain function is wonderfully simplistic, but what's entertaining about watching a man defecate himself and gurgle? You can even replicate that with a little bit of head trauma if you know what you're doing."
"Terrifying," says Edmund.
"But there's so much more depth with psychosurgery," Irgvin continues, "You can fuck around with a mind so much that someone will get an overpowering urge to, say, burn off their own lips with a plasmatorch, or stick a vibroblade down their own throat... and turn it on. Or maybe not the throat. Bite off and chew up their own tongue, claw out their own eyes, rip off their own extremities and throw them at people while singing revolting pop tunes. So. Many. Possibilities."
"Plus, I've had my fill on blown stacks for my life, let alone today."
He backs out, letting his teammates do the talking... as long as it's not too violent. Although, he thinks to himself, it's not like I can force them to stop.
[Raye] Don't worry Ted. Just watch his body language. You are good at that.
Irgvin suddenly spins around and faces Edmund, making eye contact and glowering, as if only just noticing him. "So let's cut to the chase. You work for Creation."
"I... work for Creation," Edmund confirms bitterly.
Irgvin pauses. Something about the way he said it, something about the way he shifts in his chair. "You-" he hits the word with the same intonation- "work for Creation? What, you don't think of it as 'work'? You don't pull your weight?"
"Of course I pull my weight!" Edmund snaps. "There's no work to be had in these autonomist shit holes. But Creation? A cause. Not a job. A cause."
He wouldn't admit it, but Irgvin is slightly offput by how zealous the man sounds, even though he'd had death threats- and worse- sent his way in the past few minutes.
ANDI moves further away from the interrogation. The whole business of prisoner capture and interrogation makes him uncomfortable.
[Wallace]Activating Music
[ANDI]Thank you, Wallace.
Irgvin and Theodore look at each other, somewhat concerned, leaning in to see what seems to be the issue. "You're not going on me already, are you?" Irgvin asks, expertly hiding his legitimate concern. "We're just getting started. He puts his hand on the table just in time for Edmunt to snap his head halfway back up, startling Irgvin slightly, causing him to stand up straight, knocking the room's single lightbulb in the process.
His head is tilted forty-five degrees forward, as he looks up at the sentinels, the ominously swinging light playing wicked shadows on the blank, grey back wall of the room. He breathes heavily, as if taking a breath is an ordeal, but barely visible at the angle his head is at, he wears a half-smile.
[Caliban] It looks like his wounds are getting worse.
[Raye] I think you're right... but they weren't that bad to begin with, were they?
"You think you've got me in a corner..." he continues to breathe heavily, huffing and puffing as though he had just finished running a mile. His eyes lock with Irgvin's, and his face does not change. "You think you've already won..."
In an attempt to regain control of the interrogation, Irgvin looks back at Henrique. Henrique nods back.
[Henrique] I don't like the poor chap's colour, darlings. Something strange is afoot here - maybe even another attempt at morph-suicide? Better wrap this up quickly.
"One chance, Edmund! One fucking chance before I rip you to shreds!"
Then she seized up, her hand clenching on the man's neck. The smell of burning flesh filled the room, and then she collapsed, leaving a sizzling handprint on Edmunds neck. Krash twitched on the floor, eyelids fluttering rapidly.
... only for the expression to change to one of comical surprise as Krash falls to the floor against him and he, even as agile as a neo-primate can be, overbalances and ends up sprawled on the floor beside her.
[Caliban] Oh, this one is going in ROM. Ha. Ha. Ha.
[Henrique] Shut it, you miserable bit-brain.
[Gideon] You appear to be part of a slapstick troupe. This is appropriate to your skillset.
[ANDI]Oh my.
[Wallace] Would you like me to stop the music?
[ANDI] No that's quite alright, it's strangely...fitting.
[ANDI] Are you all alright?
[Henrique] Not. A. Word.
Anyway.
He wasn't smiling. He wasn't arrogant, not any longer anyway. He was in pain- intense amounts of pain, that much was quite evident from his facial expression, and banshee-like wail he began to produce. It lasted for all of three full seconds before he stopped, breathing heavily, the single bulb still eerily throwing its light haphazardly across the room.
"You'll... never..."
He inhaled sharply.
"...never..."
...and that was it. He attempted to breathe, but was stopped, as if suddenly silenced- for good.
[Wallace] Well, I'm not sure what to say. It appears he's asphyxiated.
[Ivan] It appears Krash is alright now... and I do agree, Wallace.
[Raye] I've got a really bad feeling about this...
[Henrique] Caliban, did you spot anything out of the ordinary?
[Caliban] Well, you definitely violated his right to a fair interview, blew through at least fourteen security regulations and then he killed himself. Other than that, were you expecting me to perform a minor miracle?