Rifts Adventure IC

[Psychie]

Terra describes the interior hall to the others, along with the warning. Then, she lets out a sigh, saying, "I don't know how to bypass the door alarm, but there is another way in. I can have the Infiltrator open a Portal for us. As long as we are quick in getting through, it shouldn't be detectable for very long, if at all. Its either that, find another way in, or hope that the alarm isn't working when I open the door from the inside."

"I'm open to other suggestions if anyone has one."

 

[Purr]

Snowfall's tails swish back and forth as he smooths the whiskers on his muzzle back. "Well now. There are two directions. If one direction does not have an alarm, perhaps we should seek clues there to open the one that does?"

 

[Psychie]

Terra shakes her head. "Sorry, I may not have been clear. The alarm is on this heavy outer door, not the inner one. I can get us in, but it will require the use of a spell, unless someone has another idea."

 

[Psychie]

After thinking about the problem for a moment longer, Terra smacks herself in the forehead. "I'm an idiot. I can have the Infiltrator nullify the alarm for a moment, using much less magic energy and greatly reducing the chances that any Dog Boy will be able to sniff out the magic. The only downside is that the alarm will only be neutralized for fifteen seconds as we rush through the door and shut it behind us once more. Some days, I'd forget my own head if it were not attached!"

She motions for everyone to gather around the door to get ready to move through the soon-to-be open door as rapidly as possible before casting that spell. "Everyone ready?"

Spoiler

Hit Points: 54
SDC: 165
PPE: 145 +2d4 per level
Power Matrix: 80 PPE
PPE Battery: 50
PPE Battery: 50
Bonus Points: 9

Number of Attacks: 7
Strike: +12
Parry: +10
Dodge: +10
Roll: +10
Initiative: +6
Perception: +5, +1 vs Vampires and the Undead
Horror Factor: +5 to Save, +2 vs dragons
Critical Strike on a natural 19-20
Critical Strike from behind
Damage: +3
Death Blow on a natural 19-20

When Piloting Automations
Number of Attacks: 10 / 5 / 1
Strike: +5 (+7 with Sword)
Parry: +6 (+8 with Sword)
Dodge: +2
Roll: +2
Initiative: +6
Damage: +2
Critical Strike on a 19-20
Critical Strike from behind
Death Blow on a natural 19-20

Infiltrator Automation
Main Body MDC: 220
PPE Reserves: 120 / 90

 

[Purr]

"No spells or we're food for the Dog Boys. Besides... this old fox might have a few tricks up his sleeve."

 

[Psychie]

Terra smiles. "Trick away, my foxy friend."

 

[Purr]

Spoiler: Instrumental Mood Music

"Ronin" by Forerunners

In a magical land far away from Lone Star exists the realm of Snowfall's birth - Japan! There, ninjas, shadows, and over 9 million kami (spirits) roam the land fraught with demons, adventures, and all manner of "interesting times." This is the place Snowfall is thinking of when he looks to Eron and Terra and says, "Let us see if Lone Star is guarded against a simple Eastern traveler like myself, shall we?"

Then Snowfall of the Seven Tails is gone, vanished into a cloud of pure Chi - the very stuff of life all across the Megaverse!

Invisible, intangible, the very stuff of ether and children's dreams, Snowfall floats along and about anything that remotely looks like a sensor. Though Chinese, he remembers Sun Tzu and The Art of War. "Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will." (Source here) What was precious to the Coalition States? Its secrets. And few places on Rifts Earth held more secrets than here, Lone Star.

Snowfall completely avoids the inner and outer doors but instead drifts through the very walls and high (it is hard to believe how many people simply do not look up, especially when underground or indoors, thinks he). Once inside this room (if nothing bars his way), he uses cover as if he could be seen. For as with ninjas and spirits, only the foolish or the desperate should take chances. In his long life, Snowfall has been both (even at the same time). He hopes this Western world is not prepared for Eastern spirits such as this humble messenger of limitless Inari!

 

[Sherwood]

Purr Do you stay on this level, or does Snowfall roam about to higher levels? I want to make sure I am clear on what you are doing before going into my next post.

 

[Sherwood]

Purr
When Snowfall slips through the wall to the other side, he can see the corridor as described to him by Terra and the warning sign on the inner side of the heavy door saying, 'Emergency Exit. Alarm will sound if door is opened'. The hall is dimly lit, with no other signs or features in sight to guide you to a destination. Off to one side is a door, much lighter in construction but still an MDC structure, and the other side is an open corridor leading into the center of the complex.

You know that you are on one of the lower floors of the place, possibly the lowest level, but as of yet you are not sure of that one way or another.

What do you do now? Where do you go from here?

 

[Purr]

Sherwood
"And where does the newborn go from here?" quotes Snowfall. Compared to some great beings in the Megaverse, Snowfall's seven and a half centuries make him virtually a newborn and he does not mind knowing so.

Spoiler: Spoiler for Masamune Shirow's animated film, Ghost in the Shell

"Ghost in the shell ending scene"

Snowfall investigates the emergency exit by way of the walls that connect it (in other words, he attempts to avoid the alarms on the door out of habit more than anything else). Seeing what lies beyond, he does the same by reentering the room he had come in. He floats effortlessly down the hall like a ghost in a dream. He floats under the light MDC door and rises up in a spot where he hopes to learn more of the corridor as he looks for signs, directions, or maps anywhere he might find them. At all times, though an invisible, ethereal cloud, he makes best possible use of concealment in all three dimensions (meaning, he travels upwards if that's where the cover is).

Snowfall muses as he travels and learns. The ninja clans of feudal Japan were rumored to be part-spirit, but what do most humans know of the spirit-world? Spirits sometimes boast about their great knowledge of magic and all things supernatural, but what most spirits know of the physical world? It is best, I think, to remain the adventuring Kitsune and thus experience both worlds to their fullest. Even in the New Empire, there cannot be a place such as Lone Star, Texas, in the former United States of America. What a proud people they must have been. They certainly had some great movies and music!

Snowfall hums in his mind a little American diddy as the little fox-spirit enjoys the act of exploring, and thus, adventuring. This was the life!

"It's all right to be little bitty..."

Spoiler: Little Bitty

"Alan Jackson - Little Bitty (Official Music Video)"

 

[Sherwood]

When Snowfall passes through the light MDC door inside the complex, he finds himself in a large machinery room filled with running motors and the hum of equipment. Without any knowledge of what they are, you can only guess at what these massive machines may be - perhaps some extra power generators? Who knows. But what you do know is that there are two people in here that are seated at a large control console filled with switches and dials and other readouts. They are not armored or armed with any visible weaponry. Instead, they are wearing lab coats with Id badges on their lapels. It seems to you that they are simply monitoring the equipment here, and they are engaging in idle conversation about the local Juicer Murderball games and which team should be the top of the rankings.

One thing is also clear to you: If there is an active alarm on the outer door and it goes off, these two men will most likely hear it and be able to either investigate or sound a general alarm. Some level of stealth is going to be needed to get through that door without detection.

 

[Purr]

and the other side is an open corridor leading into the center of the complex.

Snowfall hangs out just long enough to get a good idea of how the room is set up, where the exits are, and so forth. Then he exits this room and travels down the opposite corridor to see what lies there before returning to the team.

 

[Sherwood]

Moving about the level, Snowfall finds several storerooms filled with odds and ends packed away in large plasteel crates, more machinery rooms, some with running equipment and blinking lights while others are still, dark and quiet. Other rooms appear to be break rooms for staff, sitting back and drinking a cup of coffee or whatever their beverage of choice is between shifts of working at their tasks. There are few people here in the break room, only five people there at the moment.

Finally, you find a lobby with a bank of four elevators with a security booth at it, manned by four men inside armored booth with a full twenty Skelebots standing guard outside the booth, all monitoring the elevator lobby and keeping people from passing through a heavy MDC door that requires a key card to access. There are cameras covering all angles here, along with wall and ceiling mounted weapon turrets.

One thing that Snowfall does note is that the elevators have two buttons; one to call a car to go up, and one to go down.

Knowing just how curious this foxy messenger is, you drift through the door and find yourself inside a large laboratory, filled with creatures fit to inspire nightmares in you, all carefully tucked away inside some sort of specimen tank, floating asleep in a clear, bubbling liquid.

Spoiler: The Creatures

There are dozens of chambers of these things here, some that are clearly young and immature, while others have the appearance of being full grown. The larger ones are roughly 12 to 15 feet tall, with light grey skin and no visible hair at all. Each chamber is numbered from one to twenty-five.

The lab contains a large work force of men and women in it, numbering about twenty people and a half dozen Dog Boys, with the canines all wearing their lightweight signature armor and are the only ones in here carrying any weapons. As Snowfall watches, one of the scientists can be seen directing a set of mechanical arms attaching the artificial limbs and claws to one of the 'middle aged' creatures that appear to be close to the size of the 'grown' ones at the end of the room.

Further inside the lab are a number of dead Xiticix insects in various stages of dissection.

Purr What do you do now?

 

[Purr]

The very first thing Snowfall does is keep his darned distance from the Dog Boys and anything that even remotely resembles a Psi-Stalker or other psychic! Snowfall muses, his thoughts sad though his senses remain alert. "Inari's mercy, in all my travels, I have never before seen such atrocities. Well, I have. But by the hands of oni (demons)! Never by humans. This... is the core of the Coalition States doing what they believe in. This is what they will continue to do if not stopped."

Snowfall returns to Terra's Terminators and, after returning to the form of an old human man (who looks older than ever at the moment), tells all.

 

[Psychie]

Terra listens quietly, letting Snowfall relate his information uninterrupted. She begins to wonder just what the hell she was thinking when she agreed to take this mission, then remembers that Lord Brazamal wouldn't have come to them if it were not critical to the lives of everyone in the area and then feels somewhat ashamed at her weakness. "Damn. Good job with the sneak and peek, my friend. Obviously, that lab is something important to the Coalition or else it wouldn't be guarded by so many Skelebots, but as of now, we don't know if it is this 'Project Omega' we are looking for. Hmm. What to do."

She paces around a bit, thinking furiously. "We still need to get in, but the question is where. It sounds like we are far enough away from the Dog Boys that we could risk using a spell to either portal in or disable the lock long enough to open it and slip in. But then there is the risk of those Skelebots. If we go to that one lab, we will have to be extremely careful or else we'll alert the whole place before we accomplish our mission."

Terra then looks over at Snowfall and asks, "Can you take a look at the lower level and see what's there? For some reason, I was expecting to see that the Coalition was experimenting on the Ashwarra, not whatever it is that you saw as their Project Omega to target mages and other magical beings. If I'm wrong, so be it, but lets try and hedge our bets."

OOC is it possible for me to use my Monster Lore to try and identify these critters through Snowfall's description?

 

[Sherwood]

OOC is it possible for me to use my Monster Lore to try and identify these critters through Snowfall's description?

You can attempt a roll at a -30% due to the secondhand nature of the description.

 

[Psychie]

Ok. That gives me a modified 54%

 

[Purr]

Terra then looks over at Snowfall and asks, "Can you take a look at the lower level and see what's there? For some reason, I was expecting to see that the Coalition was experimenting on the Ashwarra, not whatever it is that you saw as their Project Omega to target mages and other magical beings. If I'm wrong, so be it, but lets try and hedge our bets."

Snowfall makes several wrinkly-skinned faces. "I most certainly can! Don't watch any cool anime without me! The bad stuff? Well... you can definitely watch that without me. Ta taaa!"

One thing that Snowfall does note is that the elevators have two buttons; one to call a car to go up, and one to go down.

Then he vanishes again into the pure formless cloud of invisible chi. He makes his way to the elevator shaft and tries to run parallel through the earth occasionally peeking out as he travels... "down."

"Oh Projeeect Omeeega?" Snowfall thinks to himself. "Wheeere aaare yooou? Wait. What am I really asking for here? Well, can't stop now. Time to find out!"

 

[Sherwood]

Diving down the elevator shaft, Snowfall drops down nearly three hundred feet before you come to the bottom of the shaft. Other than the door at the bottom, there are no other levels that you pass. Going through the door, you see that there is another foyer with a security booth, again guarded with four soldiers in their distinctive Dead Boy armor and a score of Skelebots. There is another heavy MDC door that is no barrier to you, and you are now in what looks like a large natural cavern, two hundred feet high and perhaps a thousand feet long, maybe more.

In this cavern, Terra's fears about the Ashwarra seem to be coming true. There is a large specimen container with what looks like a dead Ashwarra female in it, but more disturbingly, there are scores of other containers with smaller creatures that look similar to, but not quite identical, to the dead one. It looks like there is a mass production cloning project going on here to make something that will eat magic users on sight.

Walking about this room are more Skelebots, at least another twenty, along with at least fifty scientists working on computers and monitoring the development of the monsters.

At the far end of the room from where you are is a massive freight elevator large enough to get these creatures up and out, most likely the intended exit for them to get to the surface.

 

[Purr]

Snowfall's first thought is... "A monster factory. A den of hells to send to the surface world to the misery of innocents and magic-users everywhere. This... is Project Omega. Four CS soldiers, at least forty Skelebots. Fifty scientists or so. How in Amaterasu's name are we supposed to take them down and out without summoning the wrath of all of Lone Star on our heads? Are these the only two ways in here?"

Keeping as far away as he can from the Coalition soldiers and scientists, Snowfall carefully searches the room for any other clues that might aid them. He also listens in to any non-routine conversations he comes by.

 

[Sherwood]

While Snowfall doesn't understand much of the shop talk that is going on between the various scientists (being highly technical genetic talk, after all), he does hear that the director of the Lone Star complex, a man named Dr. Bradford, wants this first batch of what they are calling Omega Beasts ready to be released into the wild within a month's time to free up the cloning chambers for more of the magic killing monsters to be made up.

There are a few things that you also spot as you hunt around. First off, on the inside of the heavy MDC door is an 'emergency quarantine lockdown' alarm that will drop another heavy blast door down and seal off this room from the rest of the base, so if that control is hit, it will seal off the chamber, inside and out.

Next, there are many nooks and crannies that a person could conceivably hide in, especially with some fancy-schmancy concealment cloaks.

Another thing that is apparent is the lack of Dog Boys down here. Any magic use on this level wouldn't be detectable by the Psi Hunters on the upper levels. So if you did let loose with some powerful magics, you wouldn't be sniffed out.

Finally, these Omega Beasts are smaller and presumably less durable than their genetic parent, making them easier to kill. Some small consolation to the beings that are in extreme danger from them.

 

[Sherwood]

There is one more thing that might be of interest. There appears to be a rather powerful power reactor here. If it could be overloaded . . . the resulting explosion would be quite spectacular, wiping out the whole level. The problem is getting to it and surviving.

 

[Purr]

The kind of plans that involved Kitsune-thinking combined with Atlantean Dimensional Voyaging began creeping into Snowfall's brain. Simple plans, yet with very high risks. Once again, Snowfall examines the room thoroughly, listens intently, and silently praises Inari that this sort of thing, as far as he knew, was not taking place in his homeland, Japan.

Once the celestial messenger feels he has a very good grasp of things, especially the room's layout, he returns to Terra's Terminators as carefully as he had come. Once there, again, he quietly but excitedly tells all, but this time in his newest form, the Kitsune of the Seven Tails!

"Guys, guys... you gotta hear this!"

 

[Silanon]

The Crazy listens. Nods. Throws in a "Good job - finding out, and all". And then - falls silent. Bobs restlessly up and down in place as brain cells digest the news. "Not easy", he finally notes, "not easy at all. Can't make a ruckus before we're down, or they'll simply lock themselves in. And can't get in without a ruckus, assuming that there's another place where that alarm goes off. And it should, they'll know better than that. They're not him, but not too stupid, either. Any chance to cause those killer hunter things to cause a headache? If something were to happen there - this is an emergency exit, right? No one would be surprised if it was used for that purpose. And if we'd sneak in and remain undetected - we'd be ready to strike once things have calmed down. With all the knowledge when and where to strike."

He pauses. "It'd interrupt another experiment, too. Should stop them all, to the last simple test. But that's a task for more than three, I fear. It's a shame. Shouldn't exist, a place like this. To improve and enhance - of course, that's fine. Came from a place like that, voluntarily and all. But this... this is... dunno. it just is, and it shouldn't be."

 

[Sherwood]

The elf mage Morrolan rubs his chin, thinking. "The problem is, if we get detected, we have multiple layers of security to fight through, first on this level, then on the lower one. I have to wonder if it is even possible for us to be able to take out sixty skelebots and whatever other static defenses there are before reinforcements from higher levels can swamp us in sheer numbers. There has to be another way in or it will not end well for us."