I don't WANNA be in the Zombie Apocalypse!

[Baelfyre]

Janice figured out the op had gone bad along about the time the headless guard grabbed her ankle. When it had really gone south was somewhat open to interpretation...

ESA FastRam. Ounce per ounce, the most expensive thing on Earth. Random access memory made by the ESA microgee facilities in Crystal Palace. The microgee facilites allowed far more precise placing of the silicon and gold atoms on the crystal matrix, almost tripling the speed of access, and doubling the amount of memory a stick could hold. The only problem was that it ran almost 30k per stick.

And Janice found out where a shipment of 20 sticks was going.

Janice put the op together. It was big; a ten man (or woman) team, with seven solo's, a netrunner, a tech, and even their own medtech. But they were going to need a big team, because it was a Militech facility. The two man sniper team took out the roving patrol, and stayed behind to keep the escape route clear.

The rest of them went in. Things seemed to be going really well, too. The five man solo team cut through the security teams like a hot knife through butter, and Jaina took care of the technical side. Alarms, locks, and booby traps, oh my...

They got to the core of the place, where the FastRam was supposed to have been delivered. There, Jaina found the largest computer she'd ever seen. At least a hundred times the size of any supercomputer supercomputer she'd ever heard of, it filled an area the size of a football field with equipment, with old fashioned electrical cables and more modern optical cables making a maze on the ceiling.

Janice stepped over the slowly cooling corpse, the one with the hole the size of a grapefruit in the back of it's head. And as she got to the table with the briefcase, the corpse reached out it's hand and squeezed Janice's ankle with a soft crunching sound, accompanied by Janice's scream.

The rest of the people that they'd killed on the way in arrived about that time (all twenty of them), still with gory holes in assorted parts of their anatomy, and proceeded to rip the solo's to pieces. SMALL pieces.

(You may assume for the purposes of this part of the story that you have any weapons, armor, and equipment that your little heart desires from chrome 1-3 and morgans. Heh. Heh. Heh.)

[stormbane]

Jaina looks back to Janice and the zombie horde and cannot help but state the obvious "Zombies? Fucking zombies?!! Are you fucking kidding me? What the FUCK?!"

She proceeds to grab Janice and try to pull her free of the hand on her ankle and back from the horde so she can frag grenade the shit out of them with her underbarrel Militech 25mm.
Initiative roll: 10 + 3 = 13

Gear:
HK77UK with 25mm underbarrel GL, suppressor, and extended magazine (30rd per clip -> 45 rnd drum) - 4 drums prepped and 10 Frag and 5 HEP grens
Light Armor Duster 14SP-All No EV
Nylon Helmet with Faceshield 20/10 (1/2 SP for the face shield)
Techscanner, Tech, Elect, B&E Kits, Pocket PC, Jamming transmitter, 3 movement sensors, 1 remote sensor, and a fashionable nylon carry bag.

[Baelfyre]

Janice goes on 15, and cuts the zombie hand loose by the thumb with a mono-knife. She's going to be limping, but she's hit her pain editor so that she can walk on the broken ankle.

Make your roll to strike, and if you hit (15 or better) roll 5d6 damage.

[stormbane]

Strike roll is 34 (rolled a 10 and a 7)
Dmg roll is 19.

Is the air filled with zombie meat now? :D

[Baelfyre]

THe air fills with flying zombie bits, but the zombies pick themselves up and throw themselves at you down the corridor. Some have limbs or large chunks missing, but they seem to be moving well enough. Probably the most disturbing is the one with the top of it's head blown off and both legs removed at the knee that is crawling on it's stumps. You have one more action till they are within melee range. You can move farther into the room, or stay and fight.

[stormbane]

She calls for Janice and the med-tech to fall back into the room and falls back after them while laying down suppresion fire. Keeping the aim low in hopes of blowing off more legs as crawling-on-stumps zombies seems better than zombies-that-still-have-legs.

20rd full auto suppresion fire burst:
What the hell? I rolled another 34 total again (10 and another 7 following) for the suppresion fire.

Why can't some of my other characters be this lucky? :(

[Baelfyre]

In a stunning display of marksmanship, virtually every round strikes a zombie.

Jaina finds a certain irony in the fact that most of them have skinweave, though. Especially since her 2d6+4 weapon, on average, bounces.

Roll a perception check.

BTW, remember that GL's come under heavy, not rifle.

[stormbane]

Perception would be awareness/notice, right? That would be a total roll of 21 9(roll)+7+5.

Also, I thought the underbarrel GL was under rifle (my bad), so that roll would have only been 30 (- the 4 i have in rifle as I have 0 in Heavy atm) in addition to any other difficulty mods you would like to add for not being trained in the skill.

Also, seriously, if I am going to continue to roll this good I want to revive some old campaigns so I can stop saying "Oops" :P

[Baelfyre]

Janice and the medic move back, firing into the mass as well. Jaina, on the other hand, hears a soft "phwhht" from the left followed by a soft "tink" to the right. There is a fine wire running from a metal knob attached to the left wall over somewhere to the right.

[stormbane]

She calls out "Tripwires!" above the commotion and looks to the source of the noise to see if a) it is tripped and b) if it is a standard tripwire trap, or if it is a monowire trap

[Baelfyre]

Well, she sees a tube floating in midair, that then floats through the air to attach to the wall, leaving a monowire trap about thigh high.

However, after she calls out the zombies stop moving forward, and then start moving away down the corridor.

A low bass voice comes from a point about four feet above Jaina's head, and says "Do TRY not to spoil any more ambushes." At which point a grenade appears out of midair and lands in the middle of the zombie group and detonates. Little strips of lightning dance across the corridor, and the zombies collapse.

"Fucking zombies."

[stormbane]

Jaina is somewhat surprised at the appearance of the newcomer.

"Who the hell are you and what the fuck were those things?"

[Baelfyre]

"I'm Blood. Those were zombies. You're in deep shit. Any more questions, or do you have the common sense to run away now?" rumbles the same spot in midair.

[stormbane]

"Well, fuck, I guess I don't."

Should I be rolling initiative on the jerk in the inviso-asshole suit now? IE: Can I tell if this dude is a FoF? Also how is the rest of the group? In condition to move(fast)?

[Baelfyre]

Go right ahead.

He seems to be saving your ass from zombies. On the other hand, he doesn't seem real patient, and he may be saving said ass to kill and/or use for himself.

Janice has a broken ankle, but has hit a pain editor and can move at 3/4 speed (5 MA).

The medtech is twitching on the floor.

The five man Solo team is in pieces across the corridor.

The zombies are doing the dying cockroach dance.

[stormbane]

Check the med tech to see if she can be moved and fall back with Janice further into the room. I would also like to keep an eye in the direction we are moving for anything of note (Actively searching with aware/notice).

[Baelfyre]

Make an awareness roll. I'm going to give you a bonus of +5 just because. The medtech is in bad shape, but you don't see any wounds.

The Voice says "Leave her. Soulkiller has a hold on neuralware. She's just gonna be another zombie in a few minutes. You may still be able to save the other one; as a netrunner she has some defenses. But if you don't get her out of here to the 'flyer outside, she's worse than dead."

And then a cannon goes off, and the medtech is minus a head.

[stormbane]

Awareness roll is 36 with your +5.

She says "Where's the flyer?" as she is helping Janice (looking at Janice) "Fuck this, let's get the fuck out of here."

[Baelfyre]

Ok, with that roll...

There is a fight going on among four cloaked (as in nearly invisible) figures right over your head. As you watch, one of the smaller figures rips off one of the Spyders weapon limb and knocks it's head off with it's own arm. The other two figures are moving in a blur so fast your character can't make out specific movements past a general fuzziness in the air. There are two small (4-6 foot) figures fighting with two Spyder full conversion borgs. And the borgs are losing limbs.

The fight is going on with an eerie silence.

There is also a 6-7 foot figure right next to you with a pistol. The "pistol" is approximately a foot and a half long, and is also cloaked. Your character has heard of the Gibson mirage gear, but this active camo is way, way past that... and includes the pistol in one hand and a sword bigger than your character in the other.

The vague figure says "Straight across this enclosure to the south and out the smoking doors. Look for the lighted hole floating in the air."

With that, he fires the cannon in his hand autofire across the room. Apparently the weapon is firing HE shells, 'cause he just blew a twenty foot hole in the sliding doors on the other end of the room. The shells exploding are the only sound; the weapon itself makes absolutely no noise. Not even the working of the weapons action.

[stormbane]

Grabs Janice to help her along and gets the fuck out of there.

[Baelfyre]

The two of you make your way across the now broken, exploding, and electrically arcing wonderland that used to be a matrix of over a hundred mainframes.

You reach the doors without incident, and see a hole floating in midair which looks like it leads into some kind of troop bay. There are two more vague figures firing into the facility with what looks like a laser cannon and a Helix that's been moified to fire ET rounds... except instead of shotshells it's firing explosive flechette rounds. The other three are bringing up the rear.

[stormbane]

Sorry for the delay, get her and Janice in the troop vehicle while we still can. We will have to worry about what the fuck just happened later, I guess.

[Baelfyre]

The three behind you follow you into the dropship, and the door closes. The figures res into a more solid existence; all three are wearing organic looking armor. The helmets retract into the suits, leaving their faces bare.

The figure that has been talking is a male, with long brown hair and leaf green eyes. He's quite handsome, and radiates an aura of competence. The two slight figures are beautiful oriental women with nearly identical features, except for their eyes. One has violet eyes, and the other emerald green. All three have a peculiar ageless look; they could be anywhere from 16-40,

The other two remain cloaked.

Blood says "Report."

The violent eyed girl says "Two minutes for the Militech fighter response team to arrive. Satellite surveillance is jammed, so we're clear for the time being. We've also cut the local interchanges; this copy of Soulkiller isn't going anywhere."

Blood turns and looks at the wall, and a video screen appears in mid-air. He says "All right. Let's explain to Militech that working with Soulkiller is a bad idea. Put the hammer down."

On the screen, you see a spark flash down from above into the middle of the complex. The spark expands into a multicolored, twisting sphere about two hundred yards across, and then vanishes. Together with everything inside the sphere. There is no explosion; not much flash; just a perfect half sphere crater where the installation used to be.

[stormbane]

What? THAT was Soulkiller? Great, I cannot tell if my day just got better or worse..

[Baelfyre]

Blood looks down at Janice, and tendrils come out of the armor and plug into her interface plugs. His eyes... change; they almost seem to have symbols flashing across them. A few seconds later, he looks grim.

"How long 'till we reach base?"

A hologram of an anime styled woman appears, with blonde hair and violet eyes. "You will reach base in approximately forty two minutes."

He looks back at Jaina, and says "Her neural interface has been compromised. I've shut it down, but she's going to need major, major surgery and recovery time. The surgery is going to have to be done in orbit, and no promises. I'd call it about a hundred k in medical expenses. Can you cover that?"

[stormbane]

What? Been compromised? What the hell are you talking about? And unfortunately no, I cannot cover 100k at the moment. She may be able to, but I have no idea. Please, tell me what is wrong with her. *She appears to be struggling to keep a firm lid on her emotions*

[Baelfyre]

What? Been compromised? What the hell are you talking about? And unfortunately no, I cannot cover 100k at the moment. She may be able to, but I have no idea. Please, tell me what is wrong with her. *She appears to be struggling to keep a firm lid on her emotions*

"By compromised, I mean that Soulkiller has hacked into it, and has loaded software in which took control of it and started overwriting her personality. What we are going to have to do is remove the neuralware, and then replace it. Without turning her into a vegetable. What I've done now is essentially turned it off and kept things from getting any worse."

"Don't worry about the money. We'll let you work it off. It'll take about a year and it will probably take that long to rebuild her brain and personality. Deal?"

[stormbane]

You have yourself a deal. I am Jaina, and you guys are?

[Baelfyre]

"I'm Blood.", he says, and points to the violet eyed oriental "That's Manticore" and (poiinting towards the greeen eyed oriental) "That's Medusa."

The two women start attaching... somethings... to Janice. A bizarre combination of technology and art; a wooden box with ivy coming from it. The ivy wraps around Janice, leaving a green cocoon with a wooden box on top of where the chest was. Shimmering characters appear above the box, together with a three dimensional hologram of the inside of her body.

"That's a life support and stasis module. She'll be staying in there pretty much for the next six months or so."

"So. We're going to drop you off in Orlando. Once Janice recovers enough to communicate, and it'll be virtual only, she'll contact you in three months or so. Your contact will be with my daughter, a woman named Heaven. She'll give you odd jobs; some will be simple, some will be odd, and some will be very very hazardous to your health. She will provide you with ID, and the bare necessities for you to survive."

"You'll need to keep a very low profile. When Militech investigates, you and your friend are going to take the heat because that's where the real trail leads. So keep your head down."

"Questions?"

[stormbane]

Considering you offered your assistance when you could have simply allowed us to rot, I would like to say thanks. Other than that, I think we're done here. Take me to Heaven (pun intended)

[Baelfyre]

OOC: Check back later tonight and you should be joining the main group. I'm on my way out the door right now, or I'd do it now.

[Baelfyre]

"All right. We'll be going to the orbital station to drop your friend off. A lot of the work is going to have to be done in zero and microgee environments. After that, we'll drop you off."

The ride continues, and the craft eventually lands somewhere. The door whines down; and the two women and the other two cloaked forms get off carrying Janice. It looks out into what appears to be a wooded glade, with a starry sky about forty feet behind you; the "sky" is about 40m x 30m.

Janice is carried off, and Blood relaxes in the chair. "Getting her here was the dicey part. Now that she's here, it should be ok."

There is a whine again as the door closes. Aimee's figure appears again "Seventeen minutes till orbital insertion. Seven minutes from there to target."

At seventeen minutes, there is a jolt that shakes the whole structure, and then a loud roaring for several seconds. Shortly after, things settle into the same quiet this whole improbable thing has had. A bit after seven minutes from there, the ramp whines one more time as you leave the craft.

Heaven is waiting.

http://www.criticalfumble.net/forum/showthread.php?t=14978