Dads and Descendants

The Brassworks, Narwa City, Genewen, 19:32 013/1111

Starport Bar

There was no doubt about it; the crew of the Evadne were down on their luck. Going into business together had seemed such a good idea, that day outside the temporary DeMob office on Perewill. Between them, they could pool enough resource to get started, and the starship was surely up to the job to begin with – they could upgrade and refit her with the profits.

Now, stranded on this flyspeck a zillion miles from anywhere, their funds wiped out by their last venture and the Jump drive fried beyond their ability to fix, it looked like they’d need a miracle to fund getting back to the stars again.

Which was where Iishmar Kekduka came in. Contacting them through a mutual business acquaintance, he had a job offer that would more than pay for the drive repairs they needed – and a little more besides. It was a job, he’d said, that required a group of sturdy, resourceful adventurers not overly bothered by some less-than-legal work which shouldn’t involve any major danger if they were careful. Just the ticket!

It had been a rotten day, and the crew were slumped in one of the cheaper bars in Narwa City, drowning their sorrows in fairly poor quality drinks. The dive was grubby and poorly-lit, but the man who entered later that evening attracted their attention.

Iishmar Kekduka

He was far better dressed than anyone else in the place, and looked like he had some kind of purpose as he looked around and then headed towards their table. As he did, Khorupchon recognized him as someone she'd done business with once or twice before it All Went Wrong; Iishmar Kekduka.  He smiled as he noticed her, and approached the table. “Good evening,” he said pleasantly, in defiance of the facts. “May I buy you five a drink and have a chat?”

Karl immediately named a drink, while the rest shrugged and he took a chair. Drinks were ordered from one of the Brassworks' bar robots, and Kekduka leaned forward to speak confidentially. “My patron has a requirement for a capable, discreet crew to carry out a little business information-gathering." Khorupchon and Kafefe recognized this as a euphemism for 'industrial espionage'. "It will pay well,” he said delicately. "How well?" asked Kafefe bluntly, "and we'll need an advance!" Kekduka lifted hand, deftly recognizing the point but indicating he would proceed.

“My patron represents a major corporate player in the sector,” he continues, “you don’t need to know who. Their biggest rival have created a rival process to their biggest upcoming product, and are looking like beating my patron’s company to market for an Imperial contract worth – well, more than we’ll ever see, haha! He is prepared to pay top credit for that not to happen. I happen to know – never mind how – that your ship needs a couple of mil worth of repairs. This job would more than pay for those. It’s in-system so you should be able to get there without need for Jump drives that work. Well, are you interested?”

None of the crew had any immediate objections - after all, they were up against it and obviously Kekduka knew that. Kafefe repeated his demand for the fee on offer and a hefty advance. Kekduka lowered his voice a bit. "I'll go into more detail tomorrow," he said, "but the offered fee is Mcr3; I can front you Cr250,000 for supplies, though what you'll spend it on here is beyond me. After all, you can't leave the system, can you?" Kafefe sat back and Sheen spoke up. "OK, we're interested. What next?"

Robot Barman

Kekduka smiled broadly. "Here's an address, for somewhere we can speak more freely," he said, handing them a card. "Meet me there at 10am local time tomorrow morning." He tagged the robot with his cashcard again, ordering a repeat of the drinks the crew had ordered. "How about a tab?" asked Karl, already slightly slurry. Kekduka laughed, updated the robot, then bade them farewell and left.

Most of the crew made the most of the tab Kekduka had set up for them. Most enjoyed their first good meal in some weeks. Kafefe and Karl also set to some serious drinking done. However, having carefully looked around to see if anyone had been watching their conversation, Khorupchon quietly tailed outside a man who had left just after Kekduka. She followed him a few blocks until he got on a bus, but having not seen which way Kekduka went after leaving, wasn't sure if he'd even gone the same way. She returned to the bar.

Settling back, the crew considered this pitch.

"We could do with finding out a little more about Mr Kekduka," suggested Kafefe. Khorupchon dug out her handcomp and connected to Genewen's PAN.

The PAN interface

The familiar pseudoface appeared and smiled its' AI smile. "How can I help you today, Ma'm?" it asked. She ran some queries on Kekduka, but brought up nothing particularly interesting, some company names, some business addresses - none matching the card.

She also contacted one of the two fixers she had dealt with in the past, Guy Wolfe. He wasn't able to add much but he did state firmly that Kekduka, while operating on both sides of the law and not one to cross, was one to keep his word and his deals once made.

Khorupchon and Sheen then turned their attention to the bartender robot, trying to get "cash back" from the tab to enter one of the games going on in the bar. After a little logic-chopping, Sheen managed to persuade it to provide Cr500 and the pair joined a game. The tanker didn't do very well, and came away poorer, but the Vargr had another Cr100 to tuck away as she left the table.

Kafefe had watched the game closely, observing the other players. Two were clearly as casual as his companions, but one was much more organized about it, an experienced gambler working his craft at the table to win some serious money. Kafefe sent a drink over to him in compliment.

Karl Engles

Karl was now steaming drunk and appeared to be attempting to annoy everyone in the bar, with some success; Tappec was tucking into her second plate of chips with much relish.

Sheen appeared to be trying to break into the static greeting robot at the door, until the barman quietly told him to pack it in.

Kafefe was working steadily down the bar, sampling an assortment of whiskys from a wide variety of local distilleries.

Four Vargr go into a bar...

Glancing around, Khorupchon noticed a group of other Vargr at a table across the bar. Wandering over, she introduced herself, and struck up a conversation. The group turned out to be the crew of a Nguksu class Armoured Fast Trader, passing through. One - Cvargh - was female, and they all seemed pleased to meet up with someone who spoke the same Gvegh language as they did. She spent a while chatting to them, though as usual she found it difficult to fit into the usual Vargr pecking order. While she was gone, Kafefe picked up her bowl of Vargr ale and tried a cautious sip - discovering to his disappointment just how different Vargr metabolisms are to humans!

Finally, winding down, they used the last of their tab to order a taxi to take them back to the starport and bed in the Evadne. The ride wasn't all that great - a ground vehicle, of all things, enough to make one doubt the Tech Level A rating for this dump - but it got them there.

Office Block, Shichi District, Narwa City, Genewen, 10:00 014/1111

Athena

Baltar

Next morning, Kafefe was more than a little hung-over, and glanced with annoyance at Karl who clearly wasn't. To add further annoyance, the ship computer's primary personality Athena was nagging them all for staying out late, drinking too much, and generally reducing the efficiency of the vessel. Her holoprojected head hovered above the holodisplay - in appearance she resembled the Greek Goddess that was her namesake, but in personality and voice she resembled a cat lady. Finally, Sheen couldn't take any more, and flipped to the backup computer, despite the faintly alarmed looks from some of the others. The image shimmered, and then Baltar's dark, saturnine features appeared and his sly, rather disturbing voice rolled out instead. "Well, gentlemen, we do seem to have found ourselves a nice, dangerous job with opportunities for bloodshed. Excellent....." Tappec shuddered slightly. Baltar was by far the better computer, but you found yourself never quite able to completely believe that he was actually on your side.

Khorupchon had gone up to the address on the card early and scouted the place; it looked like a plain office building, multiple companies. The top floor was entirely occupied by Blakeslee Industries; curiously, PAN had no entries for it at all. Nothing made her suspicious enough to raise an alarm, so when the rest arrived, they went ahead and took the lift to the 4th floor.

Ball?

Secure

Walking down the hallway to the office listed on the card, they couldn't help but notice the two heavies guarding the door towards which they were headed. Weapons weren't in evidence but it would have been astounding if they had not been there. Competent eyes flickered over the telltale signs of concealed weapons, Sheen and Karl's swords, and Kafefe's large holdall, but no comment was made. There was a brief holdup when Khorupchon pulled out one of her grenades and flashed it at the heavies as she walked past. Kafefe stepped smartly forward and stage-whispered "It's just her ball, we let her think it's a grenade, you know...." and briefly hung his tongue out to indicate a doggy expression. This outrageous bluff appeared to work as they were all ushered inside.

The office had clearly been hired for the day; there was no carpet, but a desk and rather dusty cabinet had been added, and there was a closed door off to another room on their left.

P-4836

Kekduka was seated behind the desk, but stood up to greet them and usher them into chairs on their side of the desk, indicating various refreshments for them to choose from. He then handed over a dataslug, and fired up a holo projector on the desk, bringing up a 3d image of a planetoid, gently rotating. Structures were visible on it, a small docking port, cooling vanes, commo antennae and so on.

"This,” he said, “is P-4836, located in the Srafnel asteroid belt in this system. It’s only 10km in diameter. So nondescript that it doesn’t even have a name. It’s not common knowledge, but this rock belongs to the megacorp Sternmetal LIC, and it’s here that the process in question is being developed. My patron wants the data files for that process.”

The image changed, showing the layout of the docking port and a few areas close to it. “We have managed to glean this much on the layout. Security is not overwhelming as far as we can tell; they rely more on the fact that nobody knows they’re there, and that they don’t let anyone land if they do find out. Supply and staff craft land occasionally. How you do this is up to you of course, but it’s worth mentioning that they’d have to let a craft in genuine distress land – it’s a High Justice crime not to.”

"We know that the process we are interested in is being researched in section B2, and that the data systems are sealed – standard Sternmetal policy – you’ll have to find it and go there. There are some things we can provide you that may help; we know what the staff’s uniforms look like and can supply matching ones, and we can try and put fake ID together, though if it needs to be read with scanners you’ll need to work around that. We can also provide fake door access cards. If you don’t want to use your own ship to get there, we can provide a standard launch marked up to look like a Sternmetal craft. The papers there include a commo code you can contact me on to arrange delivery of said items, and to advise success when you return.”

“The process you are looking for is apparently called P-46238.”

“Payment is on delivery of the data, MCr3.”

There was a pause, then Sheen asked, "What does the process do?" Kekduka coughed and shrugged. "I’m not at liberty to go into detail, but it’s something to do with increased productivity. " he said. This made sense given it was Sternmetal they were dealing with. Khorupchon flicked an ear. "If there end up being casualties during this," she said carefully, "is that going to be a problem for you?" It was as much a question for the rest of her companions as their patron; were they all comfortable with Black Ops? Apparently they were.

Kekduka didn't appear surprised by the question. "Not at all," he replied quietly. Clearly, his client was very eager to get hold of this process!

"OK," Kafefe said, "We're in. And we'll take the launch and the uniforms - clerks and security guards, please."

"Excellent. The vessel and equipment will be waiting for you at docking bay 97 two days from now," said Kekduka as they rose to leave.

Once out of the building, a long and detailed conversation ensued on how to proceed, which ran on for most of the day. In the end, they decided on a two-pronged approach. Sheen and Khorupchon would take the launch and pose as Sternmetal employees, while Kafefe, Tappec and Karl would take the Evadne and arrive rather later, faking a major distress situation requiring a landing and medical attention. Nobody really wanted to be the casualty - and a fake casualty would only be discovered and blow the whole story - so Karl and Sheen resolved to provide one.

Following up the contacts for "fixers", Kafefe located Donal Blaine, hoping to procure more military-grade hardware with the KCr250 that was eating through his pocket. He was, however, disappointed - no mercenary outfits operated out of Genewen and Blaine had no links into the planetary military - whose equipment wasn't much better than that stored in the Evadne's locker in any case. He did manage to lay his hands on ten kilos of Tech B plastique and half-a-dozen timed detonators which seemed like it might be useful.

Docking Bay 97, Narva Down Starport, Genewen, 15:42 016/1111

Pilot's Seat

The launch was indeed where they had been told, two days later. 20 displacement tons, a small spacecraft for shuttling people and goods around within a star system. Sternmetal insiginia were blazoned on the hull, and five uniforms were hung neatly up in the passenger section.

Genewen Star System Layout - click it for larger image!

The Srafnel asteroid belt was two orbits down the gravity well, two and a quarter days' travel in the stubby launch. With clearance from the starport's tower, they lifted into the sky and into orbit in forty minutes, then headed out along a looping course towards the belt.

Half a day later, the quicker Evadne lifted off and also headed for Srafnel, Tappec having filed a flight plan indicating they were planning some meteor mining in the belt. Karl and Sheen had bushwhacked an unfortunate drunken hobo and - with Tappec's wry assistance - battered him into unconciousness in such a way that he was unlikely to recuperate for a long time, if ever. They'd never discovered his name, so referred to him as "Smiffy".

Orbit, P-4638, Srafnel Belt, Genewen, 09:09 018/1111

As the asteroid grew larger through the viewports, Khorupchon clicked on the IFF unit Kekduka had provided, and a radio transmission came in. "Launch JW-30, you are cleared to land at Pad 3, please follow the flight path I've transmitted. Have a good one." The voice sounded routine, disinterested, and the two relaxed a milimetre - first test passed.

The launch dropped gently through the asteroid's almost non-existent gravity field and neatly through the aperture into the bay itself. The pressure doors slid shut above their heads and the bay was pressurized. As they disembarked, the large hatch opposite opened and three men strolled in, two in guard uniforms and one with a datapad. "Names?" asked the clerk perfunctorily.

The two reeled off the fake names attached to their fake ID and produced their badges. The clerk made some notes, and the guards eyed them and their equipment professionally but without comment. One of the guards spoke rather plaintively to Sheen; "Did you bring more bogrolls?" He shook his head. "Have you come to fix the heating - damn place is always cold?" Again he shook his head. "Damn," muttered the guard. "Buggers down on the planet don't know nuffin'."

The clerk handed them their papers back. "You've been assigned quarters F32 and F33. Grab a buggy and it'll take you there. Have a good tour," he said, and the three turned and left them to it.

Docking Bay P3

It dawned on them then that the personnel of this base were so used to the fact that nobody knew it was there, and that no-one would be there who was not supposed to be there, that they would take it as read that they themselves were supposed to be there. Unless they did something reckless or out of character, they would have some considerable freedom of movement. Heartened, they moved out of the docking bay and into the corridor.

The base was hollowed into the rock of the planetoid, and thus comprised defined areas linked by long corridors. These were a good four metres across, with power and commo stations every 50m. Sheen stopped at one of these to summon a buggy.

Whatever scouting Kekduka had managed to get done had mentioned the battery buggies. They were simple robots, built at the local level of technology, used to travel along the corridors between areas of the base. The one that showed up was empty, and the two got in and - after some discussion - started exploring the base.

Srafnel Belt, Genewen, 17:59 20/1111

"Smiffy"

Mimicing how a real prospector would operate, the Evadne entered the asteroid belt and arranged to "accidentally" pass within close proximity of P-4638. Then Kafefe set about creating a realistic-looking life support malfunction. As part of this, he created a fake LS cartridge, set up to appear damaged, and hollow inside so as to allow for smuggling contraband onto the asteroid. At the same time, Karl and Tappec freshened "Smiffy's" wounds so they looked more recent, and reinforced his deep state of unconciousness. Then the whole crew donned vacc suits and Kafefe activated his "malfunction", exhausting the ship's atmosphere into space.

Tappec keyed the ship's radio and cleared her throat, gathering her acting skills. "Calling anyone, calling anyone, Signal-GK I repeat Signal-GK. IS Evadne here with a critical LS malfunction and casualties, repeat we have injured. We can't make it back out of the belt, our navigator is down, please assist." She tacked their co-ordinates on and set it to repeat. This was the critical moment. They weren't supposed to know that the base was there on P-4638, so they couldn't simply call them and ask for help. They had to put out an open call and hope that common decency or fear of Imperial response to a rejected Signal-GK call would make the base respond. If it didn't, they were going to struggle to find an excuse to land there.

There was a worryingly long pause, and then: "All right, Evadne, your emergency is recognized. Please land on asteroid P-4638 at co-ordinates attached to this message. Land at Pad 4, you're too big for our docking bays. We'll have a med team standing by, over." Grins flashed around the battered bridge as Tappec turned the elderly ship towards the asteroid they already knew how to find. Baltar chuckled. "Suckers," he commented.

Sternmetal Research Facility, P-4638, Srafnel Belt, Genewen, 23:10 20/1111

Vacc Suit

After "limping" to the asteroid, the ship put down gingerly onto the pad as directed, finding it matched the pictures and data they'd been given - just a fused area of rock. An airlock on the side of a lift housing at one corner was invitingly open, and the three lugged their unconcious "friend" across the intervening space. Under the tiny gravity field, he was no great burden - though he suddenly reacquired his normal mass as they entered the lift and stepped onto its' grav plates.

The lift closed, pressurized, and descended, opening onto a corridor packed with people. There was a crash team with a gurney and medical gear; a couple of clerks; and a group of security guards. Kafefe noticed - but didn't react to - the presence of Khorupchon among the guards and Sheen with a datapad as one of the clerks.

The medics siezed "Smiffy" and had him onto the gurney in no time, attaching sensors as they began to wheel him away. As planned, Karl threw a fit of hysterics, clinging to the prone form and weeping, "No! No! Smiffy, you've got to save Smiffy!" and so on. Used to this sort of thing, the medics allowed him to tag along as they wheeled the casualty away.

Meanwhile the clerks were gathering to take down details of the unexpected guests, so Sheen stepped forward and waved the others away: "It's all right, fellas, I've got this one." He carefully questioned each of the "survivors" and then with equal care filed complete rubbish into the base computer about them, intentionally losing the records so as to make them impossible to find. He also updated "Smiffy's" records to show him as allergic to pretty much everything, all to buy them more time.

He also tried to start a conversation about Level 6, but received a fairly solid "We don't talk about Level 6. They have their own security down there and we don't get involved."

Level 1, Sternmetal Research Facility, P-4638, Srafnel Belt, Genewen, 20:03 25/1111

Green ID

Over the following week, the party settled into their roles within the base; Sheen and Khorupchon operating as staff (the former having managed to add their names to the staff roster) and the others as rescued spacefarers awaiting their comrade's recovery. Issued with green ID badges, they had only the most basic access to the first level of the facility, though Kafefe's had been extended to include the buggy garage to allow him to work on the "malfunction". He'd established a pattern of trudging back and forth to the Evadne with parts and tools to the point that the Sternmetal security guards barely even glanced at him any more.

Karl and Tappec had taken a good look around the Medical facilities and were rather impressed. It was well-equipped, and just possibly a little oversized for a base with a hundred people on it. "Smiffy" seemed to be stable but not improving; Karl was ready to step on his oxygen pipe if necessary to keep him there.

Orange Pass

All had established that the buggies were able to display a schematic of the level they were operating on, though with areas inaccessible to the ID of the driver greyed out. The Orange level passes provided by Kekduka granted access to a much larger percentage, with the notable exception of the security station and lift shaft controlling access to Level 6. They were pretty sure that the data they were after was going to be in the Classfied L6 area.

Today was the day they had resolved to make their move.

Tappec had pointed out that, with the only Sternmetal spacecraft underground, the only means the facility had for sending a distress call over interplanetary distances was through the commo mast. On one of his forays back to the ship, Kafefe had taken a short detour to the mast and set a demolition charge, with a timer set to the same time as they were planning to take action. Ideally, in vacuum, the explosion should be pretty much un-noticed and the loss of external comms only spotted when it was supposed to be used. With a little tweaking, Tappec managed to rig the Evadne's anti-hijack cameras to point at the mast so they could monitor the results.

Level 5, Sternmetal Research Facility, P-4638, Srafnel Belt, Genewen, 21:13 25/1111

L6 Security

Khorupchon

With the aim of doing some recon and possibly creating a distraction, Khorupchon had gone down to L5 and approached the security station guarding the Classified lift. As she reached it, a guard emerged, and she had to withold a surprised reaction. This man was completely different to the rather relaxed and lightly-equipped guards upstairs. Instead of the usual ballistic cloth, he was wearing half-armour - selected sections of cover made of the same cerametal sandwich as battledress - and he was armed with a laser rifle instead of an automatic slugthrower. The officer, hand near his laser pistol, eyed the Vargr coldly.

"Yes?" he said briskly. Khorupchon affected a woebegone aspect. "I was told to report here," she said wryly, "but I'm not sure I should be here, and it looks like you aren't either." The officer shook his head. "I've not heard anything. I can check; what's your operating number?" The Vargr turned away. "Someone's taking the rip," she grumbled, sticking her tail between her legs as she slunk off. She had, however, managed to get a glimpse of the security post beyond.

It was a large room - very large - packed with consoles, equipment and data systems. Three more guards and an officer were working on various things, all with weapons close at hand.

Tech

Meanwhile, the others had ridden buggies and lifts down as far as the buggy garage on L5, where they had opened the box, unpacked their own gear, and begun to get changed. Just as they were down to their underwear, the door slid open and a maintainance tech sauntered in, toolbox in hand, to discover several people hurriedly disrobing. "Oh!" he said, in some surprise, "is it that sort of party?"

Karl and Kafefe scrambled for weapons; Karl's got tangled up in his trousers somewhere, but Kafefe swung his rifle up and before the astonished tech could move, smacked him in the face with the butt. The man went down like a sack of spuds.

In short order he was bundled into a locker and the group set off towards the security post, meeting up with Khorupchon on the way. As they approached the station, they faked a loud argument about whether she had been sent to the station or not, which kept going right up to the point where they swarmed into the room. Each chose a guard and began arguing with them, top volume and right up to their face. Surprise could, however, only last so long. The officer drew a deep breath. "Shut up!" he bellowed, "and back off!"

Commo Helmet

Sheen did a double-switch and brought his tranq spray up behind his clipboard, completely fooling the guard and catching him full in the face with the cloud of droplets. The man keeled over and the tanker stepped over him towards the officer. Khorupchon had beaten him to it, though; she charged at the man, grabbing and snapping the boom mike on his commo helmet as she did so. Her intention was to crowd him up against the wall but he proved stronger than she expected, and the pair ended up locked in a grapple in the middle of the fight. On the other side, Kafefe had grabbed a guard by the back of the neck and pulled his head down to get him closer to the spray. He overdid it though and sprayed the man in the ear with the tranq spray.

DM Note: Our first PC casualty here; Zac's character took slightly more than his End in one shot, rendering him immediately unconscious.

Finally the moment of surprise wore off and the guards began to react. The one Karl Engles was trying to reach snapped his rifle up and fired. The weapons were the old-fashioned type that shot a visible beam, but were no less effective for that; the bolt melted through Karl's ballistic cloth jacket and burned a hole in his side. He went down in an ungainly sprawl and the guard looked around for another target.

In the confusion, Tappec the pilot managed to spray another guard and put him down. She then stepped over the downed Karl to defend him from the next attacker. Khorupchon managed to sink her teeth into the officer, but the horror of being bitten seemed to give him extra strength to pull free - just in time for Sheen to land a hefty punch on his jaw. Kafefe and Tappec both managed to tranquilize their targets, leaving the officer on his own. As he glanced around for an escape path, Sheen clobbered him again, this time rendering him unconscious in the good ol' Tech Level 0 way.

Medical Kit

Kafefe stepped over the now moaning Karl and cycled the door shut, hiding the scene from passers-by, and Sheen went around making grimly sure all the guards were safely dead. Khorupchon followed, stripping the uniforms and handing the half-armour, purple access cards and laser rifles around to her human friends. Meanwhile, Tappec had dropped to her knees next to Karl and unclipped her medical kit from her belt.

DM Note: At about this point (having saved Zac's character) Lizzie had to leave and Tappec became a semi-NPC.

Skillfully applying first aid, she managed to get him conscious and upright again in ten minutes, and drugged to cover the pain of his laserburn until they could get away. By that time everyone else was changed into guard armour, the dead guards were tucked away in lockers, and Lieutenant Frobisher was awake and ready to be questioned.

Purple ID Card

After glancing around at the five grim intruders and the conspicuous absence of his men - and the odd giveaway bloodstain - the guard Lieutenant was quite ready to talk. He confirmed that there were 12 L6 security guards in all - another five on the level itself. No, he didn't know what was being researched where; their purpose was security. He did give a fairly accurate description of the level below. Then he met the same sad end as his men and joined them in the cupboard.

Making their way through the security post to the classified lift shaft, the group elected to leave Tappec on Level 5 to prevent the lift moving where they didn't want it to, and boarded the lift to descend to Level 6. The purple cards proved to be the only ones that would operate the lift; smoothly it descended to the classified Level 6.

Level 6, Sternmetal Research Facility, P-4638, Srafnel Belt, Genewen, 22:14 25/1111

This floor felt different. All the corridors were 2m wide by 2.5m high, with no buggy track, lit by overhead panels and with a combination power socket/commo panel every 50m. The air was slightly colder and the ambient light was slightly darker; the whole place had a quiet, unsettling air to it. Everyone felt slightly nervous from the moment they stepped out of the lift.

Robot Sentry

Another reason for that were the two olive-green pillars bulking in the corners of the room. Unlike the other lifts, as this one descended into the L6 lift room, it became simply a floor descending inside four slim pillars, open on all sides to the larger room it entered. Flanking the only exit from that room were two robot sentries, between them commanding a complete coverage of the entire room and lift. In a tense whisper, Kafefe confirmed that each was equipped with two gauss rifles. His eyes were a bit wild; he'd far rather have been equipped with said rifles than facing them, but these were built in and not configured with controls for a human operator.

Hastily, each of the team produced the purple passes they'd taken from the guards above and flourished them. Presumably this was successful as they hoped, as the sentries didn't move or react. Breathing sighs of relief, the party moved on into Level 6.

Portrait of a suddenly single girl

Exploring, they located the Power Management room, where power from the power plant above was distributed to the classified level, supported by an attached room of backup batteries. Emerging from there and heading to the Security room, they ran smack into a patrolling L6 guard. "What are you doing down here?" he asked sharply. "Orders!" said Karl. "I wasn't informed..." and at that point Kafefe sprayed him with tranq and laid him out. Swiftly he was despoiled of his card, weapon, money, a picture of a rather pretty girl whose man would now not be coming back for her. Then Kafefe dragged him into the Power room and ended his life.

Disguised and equipped as L6 guards, the party headed boldly into the L6 security room. They hadn't quite all cleared the doorway when the officer pointed at them and snapped: "Who are you and why are you in our uniforms?" Damn, thought Khorupchon, someone who knows his men by sight. All hell broke loose immediately.

Battlescene L6 Security. Karl has just shotgunned the two guards far left.

A guard levelled his laser rifle and shot at Khorupchon, but the bolt glanced off her armour and exploded on the ceiling. Sheen winged one of the other guards, put his head down, and charged through into the room and to the side to make space for the other. Khafefe and Khorupchon followed him in, and Kafefe, still using his ACR, wounded the officer and dropped one of the guards in one sweeping burst, briefly terrifying Sheen as the bullets whipped past him on both sides. Khorupchon finished the officer with a laser bolt and bawled out "Drop your weapons!" to the two remaining upright guards.

Cowed by the sight of their comrades downed so speedily, the two guards dropped their weapons and lifted their hands. The party started to move to secure the downed guards and disarm the prisoners, and as they did so Karl heard one of them quietly muttering to himself. The Cr.01 dropped - he was quietly speaking into the mike of his commo helmet! Without hesitation, Karl swung his shotgun up and let fly. The blast enveloped both of the yielded guards and punched them off their feet backwards to sprawl motionless on the floor.

Khorupchon leaped to the door, stepped outside to guard it, and closed it. Meanwhile the others looted the dead guards of a few hundred credits pocket change and concealed their corpses behind desks in the security office. Khorupchon - with some remote advice from Tappec - managed to slave the security computer to her hand computer, creating a window on it displaying the security system. Exiting, they tried to jam the door, but neither mechanically nor via computers could they find a way to do so. In the end they hung a sign on the outside, "Danger! Do not enter" which apart from being true, was the best they could do to keep the bodies from being discovered.

The players split by generation, the two 50s guys going one way and the 20s the other...

All this time they were waiting for some response to the guard's surreptitious call; but nothing came, and they concluded he had been calling for backup from the guards above - all already dead. Relaxing a bit, the group divided themselves to work along the level. It was structured as a hollow square, and the plan was to check the labs to each side and meet in the middle to investigate the L6 Computer and labs B1 and B2.

Khorupchon and Kafefe headed down the left-hand side, rapidly realizing that all the labs marked on their plan were closed up and decommissioned. They came down to the turn onto the far end corridor and located Lab B2, which they recalled was where Kekduka had told them the process was located.

Lab 5

Meanwhile, Karl and Sheen had found much the same on the other side except for lab 5, the door of which was jammed open. Inside, the lab was a shambles, smashed to pieces and with great areas stained in dried blood. There were also signs of explosions and laser bolt strikes in several places; and no sign of life nor bodies.

Disturbed, they moved on.

Computer Room

Whoops...

The easiest way to secure the data they were supposed to recover seemed to be the computer suite, so Kafefe and Sheen carded their way into the room while the others moved to the corners of the corridor to cover the approaches. Carefully, Kafefe identified the databanks, and gingerly extracted the storage crystals in their racks. The first one was no problem but the second one he slipped and dropped with a crash. He wasn't sure if they'd survived the impact, but he had other problems.

ERT! ERT! ERT!

Instantly, a strident klaxon began to sound and on every screen in the computer room, and the security computer window on Khorupchon's hand computer, the same red symbol replaced whatever had been displayed.

Sheen and Kafefe turned and tried to leave the computer room, only to discover that the door no longer responded even to the purple access cards. Evidently, lockdown meant lockdown!

Outside, Karl - at the corner nearest Lab B2 - heard the deafening klaxon start up, but also heard from behind him a muffled but very loud explosion from within the lab. Looking around to try and work out what was happening, he heard crashing noises and then multiple footsteps from within the lab; footsteps that didn't sound quite right. Worried, he hustled over to the computer room door and met Khorupchon coming the other way.

Alerted by the banging on the computer room door, and the radio calls from Kafefe and Sheen, the pair set to trying to get the door open, and eventually Khorupchon managed it by largely dismantling the mechanism. Freed, the pair started loading the datacrystals while Karl returned to monitor B2 and Khorupchon and Sheen went down to B1 to see what was happening. She knocked on the door and called "Are you all right in there?" The response startled her, the sounds of utter panic and desperation. She applied her new knowledge to the lock and got the door open, freeing half a dozen scientists who bleated in panicked voices at her to get them out of the level instantly - taking her for a real L6 security guard.

Data Crystal

"Is there anything you need to take with you?" asked Khorupchon, but the scientists were too panicked to respond. Sheen fired a shot into the air with his revolver, and this slapped some of them into responding. One, with "Dr Berro" on his name badge, turned back into the lab as the others gathered around Khorupchon and Sheen. Sheen recalled that the signs outside the lab had mentioned that name - presumably he was in charge. Berro reached a computer, ejected a holocrystal, and dropped it in a pocket.

"Do you need anything from B2?" asked Khorupchon. Berro paled. "God!" he exclaimed, "don't go anywhere near B2, do you hear me?" Sheen shrugged. "There was an explosion in there a few minutes ago," he commented innocently. This statement produced a reaction out of all proportion. All the scientists started screaming in terror, and fled past Sheen away towards the access lift. Khorupchon put a hand on Berro's chest and stopped him. "I think I'd better take that crystal," he said reasonably. Berro shook his head and tried to push past, and Sheen, losing patience, drew his sword and ran him through. The scientist, the only person fully aware of the details of the Berro Project, fell dying as Khorupchon retrieved and pocketed the crystal.

DM Note: It's worth noting that the players reacted to the appearance of zombies with zero surprise. "We knew it was either Zombies or Aliens," they said. Well, who am I to argue with classics?

Meanwhile, Karl had heard increasing noises coming from B2 and finally observed the door pushed violently open and several figures emerge. Oh, he thought, survivors. Oh, wait a minute..." These "survivors" didn't look quite right, and as they began to lumber up the corridor towards him, he realized why. They were dead...

Berros - or Zombies

Both Korupchon and Kafefe heard Karl's alarmed yells of warning as he pelted up the corridor towards them: "Zombies!" One glance was sufficient and they took off after the scientists, Khorupchon scattering a few hand grenades behind her as she ran. A few of the hideously reanimated dead were blown to bits but more kept emerging from B2 and lurching up to speed in pursuit of the warm living bodies of the party and scientists.

At a flat run the adventurers round the corner to the short corridor leading to the lift chamber - where they found the surviving scientists futilely battering at the bulkhead grade door with their bare hands. While Karl and Sheen guarded the junction to the main square of the level, Khorupchon began to run another bypass on the door.

"Hurry it up!" called Karl shakily, "I can hear them coming!" The Vargr growled to herself; "What do you think I'm -" and the door opened. Scientists flooded in and began rattling the call button for the lift. Sheen was already on the radio to Tappec; "Send the lift down!" he screamed into the pickup. There was a pause, then Tappec's puzzled voice came back. "I can't," she said, "It won't move! And all the screens say "Lockdown". What's going on?"

The party looked at each other, and then Khorupchon tore her handcomp off the lift controls and sprinted over to the room door, where she began to work on closing and locking it with even more urgency than she had worked to open it. Shuffling footsteps were clearly audible down both corridors by the time the two halves of the door sliced shut and she drew a relieved breath. Karl and Sheen moved to take up defensive positions facing the door as she returned to the lift controls.

"If they break in, surely the robot sentries will take them out?" asked a scientist in a querolous voice. Kafefe shook his head. "Quite correct," he said, "but there's nowhere in here that we could hide from the crossfire, is there?" The scientist paled to a light green and went quiet. Khorupchon continued to work as the battering on the door grew louder and, slowly, it began to dent and bend.

Quite suddenly, the top corner gave way and an arm forced its way through, reaching and flailing for the flesh it sensed. Karl raised his shotgun and fired, blasting the limb completely off its shoulder. The remains spasmed a couple of times and then fell back into the outside, while the severed lower arm dropped into the lift room. It twitched and pulled itself along a few feet before going still. Another arm tore through on the other side as the lift finally started down, and Sheen sprayed it with bullets, tearing holes through it but not appreciably decreasing its reaching.

The lift arrived and the party and scientists bundled onto it, Khorupchon having already reversed the command and started it back up. As it reached around five feet from the ground, she calmly reached out and shoved the surviving scientists off the platform to sprawl on the floor of the L6 lift room. The sound of tearing metal announced the failure of the door as the lift continued to rise.

A moment later, one of the scientists made a desperate leap and got his arms onto the lift bed, holding on as it rose to dangle above the floor. Before anyone could react, the lift passed the level of the ceiling. There was a brief, horrified scream and then two bloody forearms were lying severed on the lift floor, their fingers twitching like a demented piano player's. Below, the party heard the soft stutter of gauss weapon fire start up, accompanied by the meaty slaps of hypersonic needle bullets going into flesh, and very brief screaming.

As the lift continued to rise, a debate broke out as to whether the party could justify delivering what they now knew the process to involve to their patron and his client. In the face of their actions to date, this was an interesting conceptual mix....

To be continued? The players indicated they'd like to finish the adventure and possibly continue with the characters. Will this happen? Watch this space....

Session Date 22nd July 2017 (203/-2501 Imperial)