Chapter 4: Dark Side of the Moon

[Marullus]

*bump*
Shadrach?

[redwarrior]

Hansel shouts We probably should tie up that fellow at the security station! as he continues trying to get a bead on this last pesky robot. William knocked one out at the very beginning of this combat.

[Marullus]

Ambiance: Tank

Meanwhile, off-camera:

In a sparse, unadorned room on A deck, Andras sits thumbing through a book, even though he has already read it twice. It won't be until tomorrow, he expects, that they'll ask him again to make their machines work and which he will feign minor progress upon. If it makes them feel better to lock the door, he thinks. He is not one for bravado, after all, and he hasn't found any easy route for escape. Through the plexisteel window he sees the bored station native picking his fingernails on guard duty.

The sounds of gunfire, unmistakeable, can be heard muffled through the floor. "Reception compromised! I repeat, reception compromised!" screeches the comms unit outside his door. The guard gets up and sprints down the hall.

With a shrug, Andras stands up and looks at the heavy steel door. The bolts can be heard to slide back into the locks and the door swings open without him even touching it. He strolls out, picks up his bundle of belongings from the room outside, and turns right towards the elevator.

In the Welcome Center:
The last guard stumbles away, calling into his wrist communicator, "Reception compromised! I repeat, reception compromised!"

"Get him or we'll have to fight him again!!" shouts Hansel.

Taavi raises his rifle and considers. The guard hits the panel and the northern blast doors open - he sprints around the corner and out of sight. The doors rotate closed. The guard escapes.

With concentrated fire from Hansel, Taavi, Shadrach, and Dantes, the small robots are picked off, the assailants gone. The welcome center is momentarily silent except for the beeping, blinking red light on the central desk's console.

Oliver stays next to the unconscious Emile, watching his vitals. Nora runs across the now-empty room to Balygyr, dropping to a knee at his side, her medical satchel open. "What the hell is this?" she says with horror and alarm, not touching the obviously-dead body. Shadrach is quick to her side and looks down at the body as well, but he has no misunderstanding at what is before him.

The tiny robots were using small lasers to etch lines all over Balygyr's lifeless flesh, lines that form recognizable occult symbols - symbols he has studied within the Profane Tomes of Hell.

The elevator dings, the panel above it lights with a pleasant yellow glow, the letter B. The group reflexively wheels their guns around as the doors slide open. Inside, you see a haggard looking man in a rumpled three-piece suit, some large mechanical device slung over and behind his shoulder. What looks like burns at first is then discernable instead as bits of metal and circuitry, contoured and grafted to some areas of his exposed flesh - the backs of his hands, part of his neck. "Up or down?" he asks.

[cybersavant]

Teyleyr Andras "You're the ones compromising the station, correct? Do you have a way out of here?" If not, never mind."

[jemmus]

Taavi looks at Baleygr's body with remorse. Dead, and his body defiled with foul symbols. He looks up at Andras. The man hasn't attacked or called for help, so he must not be local security. Yes, that would be us. Before we answer your other question, may we ask a question ourselves? Which is, do you know a way out of the station? If so, we need to get there very quickly. And if not, do you know of somewhere we can retreat to? And very quickly?

[redwarrior]

Hansel hands spare laser rifles (I believe he had two slung to in addition to the one he was carrying), seeing Dantes carrying the combat rifle, he holds on to one of the three for himself. I may have lost the thread on what was grabbed and/or geography here a bit, so fold, spindle, and mutilate as needed to make it fit. then he runs over to to the lockers and grabs his armor and kit, tossing his 2 spare magazines for the combat rifle to Dantes. As he does so, he says A friend in need is a friend indeed. We need to get off this station, or bring down whomever is controlling it, whichever is easier. If we get off, it would be awesome if we could disable the teleporters AFTER we use them! You look like you've the run of the station, what do you suggest?

[cybersavant]

Taavi llooks up at Andras. The man hasn't attacked or called for help, so he must not be local security. Yes, that would be us. Before we answer your other question, may we ask a question ourselves? Which is, do you know a way out of the station? If so, we need to get there very quickly. And if not, do you know of somewhere we can retreat to? And very quickly?

Hansel says A friend in need is a friend indeed. We need to get off this station, or bring down whomever is controlling it, whichever is easier. If we get off, it would be awesome if we could disable the teleporters AFTER we use them! You look like you've the run of the station, what do you suggest?

Teyleyr Andras
"I'm from New London. No idea where here is. I was abducted and forced to build communication equipment to traverse intergalactic space through some dimension. I took the opportunity to slip out when my guard left to attend to you, i assumed. I don't know about these teleporters you speak of, but you have my curiosity."

He remains in the elevator, a backpack and something else slung over his back.

[Enoch]

Shadrach considers the man for a moment, his weapon at low guard and pointing near the man's feet. "If you build comms equipment, then I bet you could handle the controls of the teleporters. Do that, and we'll take you off this station with us. Deal?"

Talk (+1 Cha, -1 for no Talk): [2d6]=10

[cybersavant]

Teyleyr Andras

"Deal. Anywhere is better than here."

[Marullus]

Decision Point: Are you gettingin the elevator? Up or down? A, C,D?

[redwarrior]

Hansel finishes stowing the last of his gear and looks to Dantes Down is where the teleport pads to the surface are. Is there any reason to stay here that you can think of? I'm remembering that there was an interaction a while back that indicated that his ship was gone, but I'm not 100% certain. I expect if it's still here, he wants to get to it. But I hope it's gone....

[Marullus]

Dantes shakes his head. "I've been here long enough."

It is believed that Dantes ship is gone.

[jemmus]

Taavi
If down is to the teleport pads, than I believe that's where we should go. And quickly. So that if we can't activate the teleporters, we can quickly try the other option of going up to the directors' level. I'll add that I don't at all feel confident that my suggested plan would be the best course of action. I'm very open to any other suggestions.

[redwarrior]

Hansel in the midst of rushing to the lift suddenly comes to a complete stop, almost overbalancing himself. Talking excitedly and LOUDLY Wait a minute....They've been Bluffing! The folks on this level haven't swarmed us, and there aren't other guards coming down here. Even the drones have stopped... As long as that fight went, if they had the manpower to put us down, they would have done it! I don't think they're as all-knowing and all-controlling as they pretend. That was why they were so insistent that we give up all our gear! I'm thinking this might be the perfect time to go directly at the directors, before they get their feet back under them. Yes, they have a space station, which is cool and all, but barely enough "directors" and minions to maintain control! I think we should take deck A! There may never be a another opportunity to shut down whatever it is they're doing here!

As he talks, he'll hand his two spare laser rifles to whomever wants one. If nobody does, he'll take their battery packs and try to disable them.

I'm still good with whatever the party wants to do. But after the OOC post, It just triggered that as horrible as our rolls were, we should really be dead if they were as powerful as they were acting. I don't know that Hansel would figure out the occult angel necessarily, but this was way easier than it should have been.

Talk [2d6+3]=10+3=13 In case there are any from this level within earshot that might break out of their programming.

Notice [3d6c1+2]=6+2=8 Looking around for anything to confirm his string of guesses.

[jemmus]

Taavi retrieves his semiautomatic rifle from the locker and puts his laser pistol in his shoulder holster.

That's brilliant, Marshal Hansel! I'm inclined to also believe they're bluffing. And now that we see from what their bots did to poor Marshal Baleygr's body, the connection to the saloon of fiends makes sense. These people are evil. So we may have a moral obligation to eliminate the directors. Or at least try.

[greyarea]

Emile dreams that he might agree

[Marullus]

Are you going to test this theory by stayinghere 10 mins for Emile to recover, or go somewhere else?

[Enoch]

"I think Hansel's right as well--there was always something off. They've been keeping these people subdued through fear. But there's something worse."

Shadrach squats down next to Balygyr's lifeless body.

"These symbols--whoever these Directors are, they're Shadow cultists. They need to be exterminated."

Know Magic: [2d6+1]=9+1=10
Does Shadrach know what the purpose was of carving these sigils? Were they hoping to raise him as some sort of undead creature?

[jemmus]

Are you going to test this theory by stayinghere 10 mins for Emile to recover, or go somewhere else?

Taavi's vote is to stay here the 10 minutes for Emile to recover.

[Marullus]

Ambiance: Lux Aeterna

The group takes a minute to think and regroup in the Welcome Center, talking about the way ahead and judging the intentions of Andras, the partially cyborged man in the rumpled suit who just arrived in the elevator doorway. Hansel has an epiphany, determining the security force so far has been underwhelming, particularly as you stand for several minutes without further response at your present location. Emile wakens and rejoins you, being ministered to by Nora.

Shadrach takes time to study the sigils now carved into Balygyr's fish-like, slimy carapace. Comparing them to his memory of forbidden, arcane texts, he determines that they are funelling the arcane energy of death into a ritual that opens a portal to the Hell realm. With enough energy from enough deaths, it could become large and permanent.

As you have studied the Exchange of Light extensively in your time here on B-Deck, the revelation from Andras that he "was abducted and forced to build communication equipment to traverse intergalactic space through some dimension" clicks and makes sense. The bankers' ability to support Mandate civilization with a coherent credit system relied upon their ability to synchronize fiscal information across intergalactic space in the first place. The collapse of the Mandate stargates, and all intersector travel beyond the meager hops of the spike drive, led to the cascading collapse of the entire Mandate system. The entire B-Deck has been waiting for a whole generation, trusting that the Directors had a plan to bring the Exchange back into operation... reliable intergalactic communication is of course the first step, however difficult that might be after the Scream and without access to the stargates.

The buttons glow with dim illumination within the elevator - A, C, D. Between these revelations, the group decides to assault the A-Deck rather than flee to the teleporters. Andras confirms that he just came down the elevator and, while security forces were rushing to respond on the deck above, there were none at the elevator 5-10 minutes ago when he came down. He also knows the route through A-deck both to his cell and also from there to the communications room where he was forced to work on the dimensional control system.

The group enters the elevator and ascends. "Full speed or nothing, " comments Dantes, racking the action on his laser rifle and inserting a fresh battery. There is a quiet moment of pale yellow illumination and faint lemon scent, the lift rising under your feet. The doors open.

You all dive to the sides as blaster fire erupts through the door, singing the back wall of the elevator, three guards in pristine white full body armor firing their laser rifles at you. You are saved only by an instinctive wave of Andras' hand which causes the elevator to slam closed again momentarily...

Actions!