6 nuclear bombs in a duffel bag
Dec. 7th, 2002 01:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothWell, a briefcase of holding, actually. Tonight was Lazar's Friday game, wherein we began our assault on a very heavily fortified weapons lab. Our plan was shot before we even began, but we managed to accomplish most of our goals, and even used one fewer nuke than we'd counted on. But we're all still probably going to die.
After a brief trip to Seattle (using the previously untested 'cloud vaulting' spell enchanted into Marten's legs) to steal a bunch of new caster clips and an improved briefcase of holding from the professor they were about to kill and/or rescue, and a highly successful but STILL ill-advised scheme by which Zelder's powers were significantly enhanced by aging him 76 years while under the effects of an anti-aging spell, the party set out to initiate their plan.
The first complication came before they did anything -- the facility was already under 'attack' by a massive blob of liquid crystal. Nazir informed them that that was his 'family', engaging in their periodical mass-orgy-recombination-reproduction cycle -- all the Myriander in the world, perhaps, all in one place screwing each others' brains out. Conveniently, they'd already smashed all the external cameras on one side and taken out both facing guard towers.
No one was sure how Nazir had arranged this, or why he hadn't written it into the plan. Nazir, in fact, denied responsibility, although as he wasn't quite himself (having recombined briefly and picked up, among other things, the ability to do magic and an extra half foot of height) that didn't necessarily mean he hadn't done it.
At any rate, the roof cameras still had to be hacked, and so did the internal cameras in the labs that Alpha Team (Zelder and Marten) were going to raid and demolish. This was done, although Nazir detected a strange presence moving in the intranet and disrupting his work. While hacking the cameras, he was able to give Alpha team advance information about who was inside, and to their horror detected both Marten's now-former employer (hereafter referred to as the professor) and Chiron, also known as 'the kid', a mind-sucking super-wizard-demon-thing, sitting in the alchemy lab working on two dozen potions at once.
Facing him first was probably a bad idea, so they reprioritized their targets. Marten put on his Mappy vest, shrank to mouse size, and rode on Zelder's back as they phased through the wall and raided the closet in the testing room. They spent five minutes telekinesing assorted equipment into the improved bag of holding, which had 20,000 cubic feet of space (in 1000 20 cu ft. compartments). This went well, and they even picked up a pair of psi-shielding tiaras to protect them from psychic powers, although Zelder couldn't wear his without negating his own powers.
The next room had five people engaged in a summoning ritual. Alpha team executed a surprise attack: Zelder set off a massive telekinetic burst of sound, enough to kill or incapacitate three of the targets, and Marten blasted the other two with sleep beams. Something invisible in the center of the summoning circle blocked one of the beams, so Marten switched the Mappy vest to 'giant' size, leapt across the room (avoiding the circle), and punched the last mage in the face with his spirit-bug gauntlet (think 'The Spirits Within'). With his enhanced strength and increased size, he managed to kill the mage with one blow, separating the soul from the body.
Then he was attacked by invisible spirits, which began to run rampant as they were freed from the summoning circle by the botched summoning, possessing everything and 'making it work'. After wigging out for a bit, Marten set the nuke for 10 minutes, and he and Zelder got the hell out of the room, leaving one of Nazir's drones to guard the nuke against spirit possession.
The next room, the 'reproduction laboratory', had two people in it. Alpha Team decided to try the same approach, but it didn't work quite as well. First Zelder's sonic boom was reflected back at them, and while a frantic 'muffling matress' kept both of them alive, they were hurt. Then Marten's sleep beam only grazed the froglike anur who'd evaded Zelder's attack, not hitting solidly enough to actually put the target to sleep. Also, Marten's Mappy vest took longer than usual to switch to large size, delaying his leap long enough to make his attack simultaneous with the enemy's. He still killed the anur in one blow, but he got zapped with a barbed taser implant that sunk deep into his flesh and kept shocking him. It wasn't enough to knock him out (at least, not when he was in giant form from the Mappy vest), but it HURT a LOT. Zelder ripped it free (along with quite a bit of Marten's flesh), and both of them drank some of NKN's healing potions. Then they set a bomb for the repro lab, put on the psi-blockers, and leaned through the wall to hide a nuke in one of the cupboards in the alchemy lab.
About this time, Nazir's drone let a spirit slip past, and it bonded with the first nuke set and 'made it work'. Other spirits had already bonded with various doors and 'made them work' (opening them), so the blast from the explosion -- which was unable to affect the walls or doors themselves, as they were 'impervious to technology' -- filled not just the summoning room, but the alchemy lab and the hallway as well. Nazir saw through the security cameras in the alchemy room (also 'impervious to technology) that while the professor was vapor, Chiron was COMPLETELY UNHARMED.
Noticing from a faint rumble that something bad had happened, as it was about 9 minutes too soon for the bomb to go off, Alpha team reset their nuke for 1 minute and moved on to their last target, the bio-weapons simulations lab. Zelder squashed the techs instantly, all the data was downloaded, the super-virus was implanted, and they told Beta Team that perhaps they should go ahead with the assassination ahead of schedule, since SOMETHING had set off their nukes early.
Oh, and not to go to the first floor, Nazir added, as security had opened the door to the research annex and incinerated and irradiated everything on the first floor except the cafeteria. See, when you set off a nuke in a completely enclosed area whose walls are impervious to technology, and therefore cannot absorb heat from anything hot enough to damage them, the heat has nowhere to go and stays around. If you then open a door to such an area, because, perhaps, the security cameras have been hacked and report the hallway as safe, you die. And so does everyone else not separated from you by something impervious to technology.
So, anyway, Beta Team, consisting of Call and the NPCs Abir and Gyu-chon, went down the elevator and assassinated Mr. Maritachi, who as it turned out was a female manis, a huge pangolin-taur whose natural armor was supplemented by subdermal reinforcement. Call, in proper samurai tradition, killed her before she could move... but it was too late, in a sense, as a pair of security robots noticed them in the hallway and attacked.
At the same time, Nazir found himself counter-hacked by the 'ghost in the machine'. His computer and software was rediculously good, but even with his own skill added to it was no match. So he drew on his newfound magical power and released the attacking spirit from its obligation to complete its assigned task... and the spirit flew off, free. NKN had already panicked and destroyed the sattelite dish with her railgun, but Nazir was able to hack back into the system through one of the external cameras, and with the spirit gone had his way with the system.
Beta team fought tooth and nail with the robots, which seemed impervious to physical damage, in the sense that while it blew them to bits, that didn't really seem to slow them down. Gyu-chon's stasis caster shells took them down with one hit, although it took him a while to get around to using one on the robot that wasn't attacking him.
Meanwhile, Alpha team hit the generator room, and found to their horror that it was a soul-burner. Or at least, to Zelder's horror, as he couldn't help but feel their pain, and was nearly incapacitated. Marten was digusted by taking advantage of the weak in such a way, and decided to rescue everyone instead of setting a nuke. He got Mappy-big, cut open the plastic compartments with his monowire knife, ripped the people out of the machine, froze them in stasis, and stored them in his briefcase along with the other loot. Then Zelder, no longer in pain, crushed the generator like a pop can.
The fourth nuke was set up on a dead man's switch outside the security room -- the people inside had managed to cut themselves off from the rest of the net, and none of the lethal security measures affected the inside of the security room itself -- and the party headed down to the basement, to face The Artifact, their last objective of the raid.
The doors opened to show them 14 assorted employees, including Chiron, and a huge blue dragon in chains. Lots and lots of chains. Chiron screamed at the dragon in some strange language, while clutching at its tooth... and that's where we stopped.
last week next week
After a brief trip to Seattle (using the previously untested 'cloud vaulting' spell enchanted into Marten's legs) to steal a bunch of new caster clips and an improved briefcase of holding from the professor they were about to kill and/or rescue, and a highly successful but STILL ill-advised scheme by which Zelder's powers were significantly enhanced by aging him 76 years while under the effects of an anti-aging spell, the party set out to initiate their plan.
The first complication came before they did anything -- the facility was already under 'attack' by a massive blob of liquid crystal. Nazir informed them that that was his 'family', engaging in their periodical mass-orgy-recombination-reproduction cycle -- all the Myriander in the world, perhaps, all in one place screwing each others' brains out. Conveniently, they'd already smashed all the external cameras on one side and taken out both facing guard towers.
No one was sure how Nazir had arranged this, or why he hadn't written it into the plan. Nazir, in fact, denied responsibility, although as he wasn't quite himself (having recombined briefly and picked up, among other things, the ability to do magic and an extra half foot of height) that didn't necessarily mean he hadn't done it.
At any rate, the roof cameras still had to be hacked, and so did the internal cameras in the labs that Alpha Team (Zelder and Marten) were going to raid and demolish. This was done, although Nazir detected a strange presence moving in the intranet and disrupting his work. While hacking the cameras, he was able to give Alpha team advance information about who was inside, and to their horror detected both Marten's now-former employer (hereafter referred to as the professor) and Chiron, also known as 'the kid', a mind-sucking super-wizard-demon-thing, sitting in the alchemy lab working on two dozen potions at once.
Facing him first was probably a bad idea, so they reprioritized their targets. Marten put on his Mappy vest, shrank to mouse size, and rode on Zelder's back as they phased through the wall and raided the closet in the testing room. They spent five minutes telekinesing assorted equipment into the improved bag of holding, which had 20,000 cubic feet of space (in 1000 20 cu ft. compartments). This went well, and they even picked up a pair of psi-shielding tiaras to protect them from psychic powers, although Zelder couldn't wear his without negating his own powers.
The next room had five people engaged in a summoning ritual. Alpha team executed a surprise attack: Zelder set off a massive telekinetic burst of sound, enough to kill or incapacitate three of the targets, and Marten blasted the other two with sleep beams. Something invisible in the center of the summoning circle blocked one of the beams, so Marten switched the Mappy vest to 'giant' size, leapt across the room (avoiding the circle), and punched the last mage in the face with his spirit-bug gauntlet (think 'The Spirits Within'). With his enhanced strength and increased size, he managed to kill the mage with one blow, separating the soul from the body.
Then he was attacked by invisible spirits, which began to run rampant as they were freed from the summoning circle by the botched summoning, possessing everything and 'making it work'. After wigging out for a bit, Marten set the nuke for 10 minutes, and he and Zelder got the hell out of the room, leaving one of Nazir's drones to guard the nuke against spirit possession.
The next room, the 'reproduction laboratory', had two people in it. Alpha Team decided to try the same approach, but it didn't work quite as well. First Zelder's sonic boom was reflected back at them, and while a frantic 'muffling matress' kept both of them alive, they were hurt. Then Marten's sleep beam only grazed the froglike anur who'd evaded Zelder's attack, not hitting solidly enough to actually put the target to sleep. Also, Marten's Mappy vest took longer than usual to switch to large size, delaying his leap long enough to make his attack simultaneous with the enemy's. He still killed the anur in one blow, but he got zapped with a barbed taser implant that sunk deep into his flesh and kept shocking him. It wasn't enough to knock him out (at least, not when he was in giant form from the Mappy vest), but it HURT a LOT. Zelder ripped it free (along with quite a bit of Marten's flesh), and both of them drank some of NKN's healing potions. Then they set a bomb for the repro lab, put on the psi-blockers, and leaned through the wall to hide a nuke in one of the cupboards in the alchemy lab.
About this time, Nazir's drone let a spirit slip past, and it bonded with the first nuke set and 'made it work'. Other spirits had already bonded with various doors and 'made them work' (opening them), so the blast from the explosion -- which was unable to affect the walls or doors themselves, as they were 'impervious to technology' -- filled not just the summoning room, but the alchemy lab and the hallway as well. Nazir saw through the security cameras in the alchemy room (also 'impervious to technology) that while the professor was vapor, Chiron was COMPLETELY UNHARMED.
Noticing from a faint rumble that something bad had happened, as it was about 9 minutes too soon for the bomb to go off, Alpha team reset their nuke for 1 minute and moved on to their last target, the bio-weapons simulations lab. Zelder squashed the techs instantly, all the data was downloaded, the super-virus was implanted, and they told Beta Team that perhaps they should go ahead with the assassination ahead of schedule, since SOMETHING had set off their nukes early.
Oh, and not to go to the first floor, Nazir added, as security had opened the door to the research annex and incinerated and irradiated everything on the first floor except the cafeteria. See, when you set off a nuke in a completely enclosed area whose walls are impervious to technology, and therefore cannot absorb heat from anything hot enough to damage them, the heat has nowhere to go and stays around. If you then open a door to such an area, because, perhaps, the security cameras have been hacked and report the hallway as safe, you die. And so does everyone else not separated from you by something impervious to technology.
So, anyway, Beta Team, consisting of Call and the NPCs Abir and Gyu-chon, went down the elevator and assassinated Mr. Maritachi, who as it turned out was a female manis, a huge pangolin-taur whose natural armor was supplemented by subdermal reinforcement. Call, in proper samurai tradition, killed her before she could move... but it was too late, in a sense, as a pair of security robots noticed them in the hallway and attacked.
At the same time, Nazir found himself counter-hacked by the 'ghost in the machine'. His computer and software was rediculously good, but even with his own skill added to it was no match. So he drew on his newfound magical power and released the attacking spirit from its obligation to complete its assigned task... and the spirit flew off, free. NKN had already panicked and destroyed the sattelite dish with her railgun, but Nazir was able to hack back into the system through one of the external cameras, and with the spirit gone had his way with the system.
Beta team fought tooth and nail with the robots, which seemed impervious to physical damage, in the sense that while it blew them to bits, that didn't really seem to slow them down. Gyu-chon's stasis caster shells took them down with one hit, although it took him a while to get around to using one on the robot that wasn't attacking him.
Meanwhile, Alpha team hit the generator room, and found to their horror that it was a soul-burner. Or at least, to Zelder's horror, as he couldn't help but feel their pain, and was nearly incapacitated. Marten was digusted by taking advantage of the weak in such a way, and decided to rescue everyone instead of setting a nuke. He got Mappy-big, cut open the plastic compartments with his monowire knife, ripped the people out of the machine, froze them in stasis, and stored them in his briefcase along with the other loot. Then Zelder, no longer in pain, crushed the generator like a pop can.
The fourth nuke was set up on a dead man's switch outside the security room -- the people inside had managed to cut themselves off from the rest of the net, and none of the lethal security measures affected the inside of the security room itself -- and the party headed down to the basement, to face The Artifact, their last objective of the raid.
The doors opened to show them 14 assorted employees, including Chiron, and a huge blue dragon in chains. Lots and lots of chains. Chiron screamed at the dragon in some strange language, while clutching at its tooth... and that's where we stopped.
last week next week
