As the adventurers entered the bar, the thing that struck them first was that there was armed security. RAM does not condone the armament of civilian security forces, so this was a bit odd and implied that this business must not be owned by someone under the jurisdiction of RAM or the SAP. Jana and Tine seemed to know the place well and so the adventurers discarded their hesitation and headed into the bar.
As they rounded the corner the music was loud and had an excellent beat. The dance floor was covered in people, all of which were clean and well dressed. At the end of the hallway, there was a person sitting behind a desk through a small window in the wall. With another armed security guard watching, the woman behind the desk asked if they wanted to check anything before they went in. The group looked around at one another and agreed they did not.
Under the heavy beat of the music, Tine and Jana brought the group to the bar and they settled in. Alex purchased the largest container of Beer that rode the line between cheap and good, and as he showed no signs of sharing, everyone else purchased something similar to enjoy.
Buzz decided to dance a bit and so headed to the dance floor. Here Buzz attempted to break dance, but ultimately was only able to clear a small area of people who were afraid his flailing would cause them injury if they stayed too close to him. When he was done trying to dance, he found his way back to the bar with the others.
Jana and Tine made small talk, asking about Carm and Duskberg. Seraphina shared her news with them and congratulations were given all around. Then when Seraphina shared that the Diner and her Bakery were burned to the ground, Tine and Jana commiserated with her.
As the evening wore on, the music did not let up, it intensified. As the conversation about Carm turned to a discussion about the cafeteria and the elevation of the food therein, Alex felt comfortable sharing that he enjoyed the prepared food from a local eatery near where they lived. Jana this time admonished Alex for sharing too many details about where they were living, reminding him that he is not supposed to share details about where he lives so that if captured, RAM could not pull the information out of anyone and eliminate more than one cell at a time. As if on cue, while Tine said you could never be too sure who was listening, a Pair of Terrines along with two important looking RAM officials entered the bar. As the RAM officials crossed the dance floor, the dancers parted, creating what looked like a wake in water as a speed boat passes; no one wanted to be near these RAM agents or their muscular Terrine security guards. Tine and Jana watched the RAM agents with a laser-like focus.
The RAM agents made their way up a small set of stairs to one of the private rooms along the side of the club. The door to the room slid open and the four people stepped inside, briefly giving everyone a chance to see that two other people were in the room as well.
As the group passed, The adventurers noticed that the female RAM agent looked very familiar and they were certain she was a member of the group of RAM agents that had been in Duskberg. The people in the room also look familiar, but no one was able to place where from.
No sooner did the door close, than Jana and Tine left the bar and headed toward the room. The adventurers watched from the bar as Jana and Tine stopped near the stairs and spoke with a security guard. The music, being louder than life, made it impossible to hear anything that the guard and the two NEO agents discussed, but after a few moments, the security guard moved across the room and spoke to another guard. The two guards found their way to the opposite side of the club and took up positions that left the stairs and the private rooms unguarded.
With no armed resistance close by, Tine and Jana made their way to the private room, and after drawing laser pistols, slide the door open and darted inside as it closed behind them. Not a minute later, a man burst from the room clutching his bleeding throat and then fell over the railing into the dance area. The closest security guard on the dance floor rushed to his aid, but the man appeared to be dead.
Tine was next to come out of the room following the path of the man, sporting an ugly wound in his leg. After Tine, the female RAM agent came rushing out with a bloody wound on her neck and shoulder. The female RAM agent ran down the stairs past Tine and down to the dancefloor. This is when the music finally subsided as the woman who was on stage appeared to notice the commotion and began to back away from the edge of the stage. The crowd began an exodus trying to avoid the bleeding woman fleeing the private room. Jana came out of the room and gave chase to the female RAM agent.
The adventurers sat at the bar calmly watching the entire scene unfold. Only as the bloody RAM woman got close to the bar and it looked as though Jana and Tine were not going to be able to catch her, did Buzz move from the bar. As the wounded woman looked back at her pursuers, Buzz planted his feet and waited for her to be too close to avoid him before throwing a straight arm out, knocking her to the ground in spectacular fashion. Jana know quickly caught up and while she starred the woman in the eyes, calmly ended her life with a large knife to the already wounded neck.
Security was more concerned with getting everyone to safety than stopping the assault, so once the RAM agents were dead, it was easy for the group to act like all the other patrons and flee the scene. Outside the club, sirens of the SAP police force could be heard not very far away and the club security seemed to be trying to find whoever started the conflict.
The adventurers gave one look back as they headed back to their residences and noticed that the man they saw at the graduation ceremony that they were certain was from the RAM contingent in Duskberg, was once again present here and was talking with the security guards. Tine and Jana seemed overjoyed at their ambush and with high spirits bade farewell to the adventures with a promise that they would see them the following day for graduation.
The rest of the night went uneventfully and everyone got some rest. When the morning came, the group gathered up some of their belongings and headed to the SAP training facility with Jarred. Jarred was happy to see them and explained that he was excited for them to be heading off the planet for basic space training. Jarred explained it was an exciting opportunity and demonstrated NEO’s confidence in them.
Once they arrived, they were given new space suits and a regular laser pistol. They were asked to return their smart suits, but were allowed to keep whatever gear they bright from their residence. The space suits were nicely made and of new construction. The adventurers were given time to change into the suits before being assembled for the graduation ceremony.
By mid day, the ceremony had ended and the group was given a few minutes to say their goodbyes. All of the graduates were then arranged in units that would be getting onto a shuttle together to head to Salvation III, NEO’s orbital base. Under the light of the Astrovers launching from the air field, the group headed from the assembly room to their own Astrover.
On the concrete of the walkway, the adventurers became aware of a lot of noise around and above them. Trucks were arriving outside the facility and the unmistakable scream of light cruisers overhead drew their attention to the sky.
As they watched, the field of Astrovers ahead of them were lit with laser fire and the buildings beside them were hit with other munitions. The world rattled with the explosions of multiple craft and a couple buildings. As they watched, the fire suppression and fuel control buildings were demolished by munitions from cruisers overhead. Something was terribly wrong; RAM had either discovered the base or finally understood what it really was.
Our adventurers took stock of their situation, finding they had a number of other star bound NEO proto-agents with them who were uninjured; it was up to them to save the base if it could be saved. The adventurers ran back down the concrete path hoping to avoid the next strafing run of the ships only to hear chaos of laser and small arms fire within the educational facility they were headed back toward. As they reached the door, three Terrines stepped out, eager to end their lives as well.
One of the Terrines savagely fired their laser rifles to try and force the adventurers and their companions to take cover, while another of them lobbed a Dazzle grenade into the middle of the fledgling soldiers. Bewildered and partially blinded, the group scattered and returned fire, not hitting anything. As the Terrine that sprayed them with laser fire reloaded the capacitor clip on its rifle, and the others readied their own rifles, Alex drew both pistols he was carrying and between him and Buzz, they put down the Terrines in short order. Carm and Seraphina, along with the other NEO soldiers shot wildly, but with the effects of the Dazzle grenade and the suppressive fire, it was very challenging to hit anything.
Wasting no time they regrouped and headed through the door they had very recently come out of. Not entirely sure of the layout of the facility they started trying to go room to room. The first door they came to was the equipment room and the individual there told them he had it covered and that someone needed to reactivate the air defenses. Apparently the facility had surface to air weaponry for just such an occasion, but obviously something had happened to it. The man in the equipment room urged them to find out what.
As they made their way down the hallway through the building the adventurers found themselves in the general assembly room they had just left. It looked as though Terrines had broken the windows and infiltrated the front and sides of the building. The adventurers and the NEO agents quickly killed the remaining Terrines in the assembly room and moved to Admin. As they rounded the corner to Admin, they saw there were a group of Terrines down the hall.
The NEO agents, Carm and Seraphina, headed into admin to kill off the Terrines there while Alex and Buzz shot most of the Terrines leaving one alive to flee into the women’s bathroom. As the group of adventurers moved out of Admin, back into the hallway, Alex investigated the bathroom. Momentarily he was surprised by a pair of Terrines before shooting them both with his dual laser pistols. Meanwhile, Carm, Buzz and a group of NEO trainees burst into the officer’s lounge to find a group of officers securing the area. The Officers told them to move on and continue to clear the base, as they had work to do here, and Alex made a number of comments disparaging the Officer’s bravery.
As the Adventurers made their way down the hall further, always heading toward the end of the building where the air defenses were, they came across the medical offices. Here Carm and some NEO agents entered to find a group of dead and dying soldiers. Carm observed a bomb on one of the corpses, and Seraphine ran in to defuse it, recovering some explosives. A few moments later, Seraphina defused another bomb before making sure that the Medical offices were finally safe.
Alex and Buzz entered a storage area and were ambushed, but ultimately killed the Terrines there. Alex continued down the hallway as Seraphina killed a number of Terrines with the NEO agents. As they reached the air defenses room, Alex once again burst in to try and kill the RAm agents. Unfortunately this time, the RAM soldiers had taken defensive positions and were ready for the adventurers.
As Alex burst in, he was immediately shot by three Terrines and a Technician. Almost dead, Carm pushed Alex from the doorway while Buzz, Serahina and the others made their way up from the bottom of the room. Quickly, the adventurers killed the Terrines and Seraphina shot the Technician. Cruelly, the Technician laughed as he died and released an explosive grenade directly in front of the console that controlled the air defenses.
Seraphina, thinking quickly, threw the body of one of the dead Terrines on top of the grenade. When the grenade detonated, the body of the Terrines absorbed the majority of the shrapnel and explosion, ensuring that none of the adventurers or their allies suffered any damage.
Moments later, Seraphina repaired the console and the sound of Air Defense lasers started to blare through the sky. The base was saved, and everyone was mostly OK.
No comments:
Post a Comment