[DH1e] The Damocles Contingency (RPG IC)

[A.T.]

Falk:

Time was shortening. Falk pushed what he could of the protective suits through the gap in the door and prepared to help others follow, they were committed now.

Turning to Nicios he pointed towards the hostage, "can your power pierce the seal?"

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

Reynard straightened up, blinking momentarily in the sudden brightness. He was slightly irritated with himself for having dropped the spectroscope, but it was only a small thing, an item he might have later exchanged for a decent meal or a few extra Thrones. He listened as best he could to Voyager's response. Despite the interference, he thought he got most of it.

So, first things first, he needed to make sure that he… and the rest of the team, of course… actually had a way out of this mess.

Reynard moved to the right and then edged cautiously down the right hand wall of the chamber, keeping it to his back, aiming his laspistol carefully along each rank of cylinders as he went. He saw no movement in any of the glass tubes, except for the bubbles moving in the liquid. The room was ice cold and he had to be careful to keep his footing on the shimmering floor panels. His breath steaming in the air, Reynard nevertheless did his best to hurry. The whole place was freakish in its silence, in its stillness, in its coldness, but mostly in its scores of unfortunate occupants! Were they dead or alive? What in hell had Dreyfuss been doing here?

Finally he reached the far end of the chamber and began moving along the back wall. It only took a few moments to identify the circular hatch, set into the wall a few feet above the floor level and painted in yellow with black hazard stripes all around its edge. A red triangle with a white skull was emblazoned near a central release handle, and writing below it, red shapes in a white rectangle. Mostly it was some unknown Mechanicus cypher, but a few words were printed boldly in standard Gothic.

RISK OF RADIATION POISONING!

Reynard frowned. So he had heard that bit right, then. He hoped that the protective equipment from the Cloister airlock, along with the anti-rad treatments Verdict had supplied, would be up to the task if they needed to leave via this route…

+++Looks like Voyager had it right. Might be a touch risky, but we do have a way out. What's the situation up there?+++

Reynard started to move back up the chamber, heading towards the pile of suits Falk had posted through the gap between the doors. Not all of them had looked in prime condition, and he wanted to ensure he got one of the good ones. When he was securely garbed, then he'd go have a closer look at that smashed cylinder and the central cogitator.

 

Spoiler

Reynard grabs one of the serviceable suits and starts pulling it on over his clothes. (Sorry all, but it is something he would do, not to mention his T is the lowest of the group at only 24…)

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Lysimachus

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal

Noticing the bad air Tarrant purges his lungs of air in a hard exhale, he then immediately closes his mouth and relies on his Nasal Filters.

 

TGH 29 + 0 (Challenging) = 29. Result: 27, Pass

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

"I could effect them, but without support from outside nothing can be done. My powers are not enough to save the Sister."

Nicios looks around, "We should bring the others into the Sanctum and withdraw to the back area."

[Beren]

Stitches is putting on an appropriately horrified face for the benefit of the hostage takers. Maybe that'll buy them a little bit of time. Giving way to the temptation to laugh, well, then they might try something else.

They were all on a timer of course. The gunners wouldn't want to be caught here when whatever response team was on its way turned up. On the other hand, neither did they.

Stitches turns so that the gunmen can't see his face.

"There anither terminal back there? Can we purge this room from inside it!"

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

Reynard finished putting on the protective coverall, though he didn't yet pull the plastic hood and mask over his head. He wanted to keep his senses unhindered. He didn't know what the rest of the team were doing about the invaders. He couldn't hear anything happening over the vox channel, but if the enemy did break into the Sanctum, even without the vox he'd be able to hear the gunfire. That meant he had at least some time to investigate.

Walking carefully back over the icy floor plates, he moved towards the smashed cylinder and knelt beside it. Around it the layer of ice was much thicker, presumably formed when the liquid that had been within had spilled, pooled and frozen. Pieces of jagged glass were sealed into its surface.

No sign of the occupant. A 'sample' taken by whoever killed Dreyfuss? …or maybe the occupant had woken up and killed Dreyfuss themself? Reynard shivered - only partially from the cold - and looked nervously around all the other cylinders.

Then he heard Stitches' voice over the vox.

+++There another terminal back there? Can we purge this room from inside it?+++

Putting his own unpleasant thoughts out of his head, Reynard rose and walked over to the central cogitator, wondering if it had any ability to access the same security controls as the terminal in the main Sanctum. Maybe he could even see for himself what was going on upstairs?
 

[Mazer Rackham]

Sanctum Cloister:

Reynard: The cogitator terminal is also a medical station. A centrifuge sits open, with the spinning cradle sitting idle. The lines and cables spilling from it knit tightly here, the centre of the web around you. On the screen there does not appear to be any further controls besides Lab functions. Reams of data sit static.

Spoiler

SUBJECT 03301 EXPIRED NON-GENE COMPLIANT

SUBJECT 03302 STABLE NON-GENE COMPLIANT

SUBJECT 03303 STABLE GENE COMPLIANT

SUBJECT 03304 EXPIRED NON-GENE COMPLIANT

SUBJECT 03305 STABLE NON-GENE COMPLIANT

And this is simply one section of it.

Lab functions include the sluice gate hatch, and the Cloister airlock doors, which show a malfunction.

Sanctum Interior:

Stitches: The brute outside jerks his bolt pistol at his henchmen, who open rucksacks, and begin to pull objects out which appear to have wires springing from them. He taps the glass slowly, and if it wasn't for the gas mask, you could swear he was grinning as the men begin to affix demolition charges to the observation window. The brute watches as the wiring-up continues, before he shakes the girl awake.

She fights against him, but his head bobs, turning this way and that, poise suggesting he is explaining something. He takes a guard issued command detonator, plugging the wires into the bottom, before tripping a switch. A crimson light begins to blink, and the girl looks terrified, clutching the thing like her life depended on it.

The brute taps the gruesome graffiti again, and steps back, retreating whilst keeping the girl under his aim before he retreats back into the triage area. Perhaps to threaten the girl, and keep himself occupied, he randomly executes two Frateris, completely out of hand.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

+++Sorry Doc, no security system controls down here, just the sluice gate. Plus the airlock is busted open, so I'm not sure whether we could run the autoclave up there without cooking ourselves down here too? I think we need to get out of here as soon as possible, and that means you all need to get changed.+++

He paused.

+++Got anything to cover the windows up? If you can all sneak down here without them seeing, and pull the cupboard closed behind you, it might give us a few minutes extra while they wonder where the hell we all vanished to?+++

Even as he was speaking, Reynard walked back from the cogitator towards the fallen cylinder, looking closely for any markings or identifiers. 03303… 03303…

 

[Mazer Rackham]

Sanctum Cloister:

Reynard: There is a number at the foot of the broken cylinder, in a brass cartouche which was blank, but has been etched in electro-pencil: 04389

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

"I will attempt something- Reynard open the sluice gate, we may be able to extract from there. Falk, be ready to help the others through the airlock. Stitches, cycle them through."

Nicios thumbed his ring, clearing his mind.

 

Spoiler

Invocation test- 58 (48+10)

Roll- 36

Result= Pass, with 2 DoS

 

He sends his calmed mind to the Sister, willing her to fall.

 

Spoiler

Manifest pyschic power - Spasm

Threshold - 7

Roll - 5+7, +4 WPB with +4 bonus from Invocation = 20

Overbleed x 2 (5 each over threshold)- second target affected (boss thug), third target affected (random thug closest to Sister)

Results - all targets need to take a Willpower test, failure means that they twitch uncontrollably and fall down (if they are holding a weapon it fires). No Psychic Phenomenon occur (no 9s rolled).

 

His power explodes from him, whipping past the armorglass and into the three closest minds to him, attempting to compromise their nervous systems.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Lord_Ikka

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal 

Noticing that the airlock door was just closed in haste, Tarrant locks it shut and triggers the cycle to gain access to the interior. 

[Beren]

Sluice-gate? An exit was always a good thing to have.

"No way to cover it, but they're not exactly going to be pressed against the glass when they blow their charges."

He taps at the terminal to authorise the airlock access and seal it off from any attempt to reverse it. He takes another glance at the triage security feeds, trying to gauge the situation, before resuming moving towards the cloister entrance, covering the window as he does so.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

Blow their…? What kind of charges?

+++Get moving, all of you! Five minutes more and I'm opening the sluice and getting the hell out of here! I'm ready, you all still need to suit up! +++

Reynard had to hold himself back from activating the release valve immediately. He wanted out now... but he might still need at least some of his teammates at some point.

Frustrated, searching for something else to do, he looked quickly at the next two cylinders. 04390. 04391. Other way. So that would make 03303 somewhere back… over… there? Did he have time? Hurrying faster now, but eager to learn everything he could while he waited to open the sluice, Reynard started to move along the rows, checking brass plaques as he went.

[Mazer Rackham]

Sanctum/Sanctum Exterior/Cloister:

As Stitches makes his final ministrations to the terminal, things happen at once.

The girl begins to stiffen, and she falls. The picters in triage show the strange sight of two men, one of them the brute, staggering around, grasping at throats, then stomachs, trying to assuage whatever ague plucks at them. Their weapons fall, as the others attend to them, trying to discern what is wrong. The airlock seals both sides as it cycles, and the world stops.

A red light flashes once, twice, then stays on as the detonator, now free of the grip of the girl, springs open, a safety latch flying off like a grenade spoon.

It taps on the glass beneath the obscene graffiti, an almost polite knock.

Then the charges go off.

A blast thunders into the space, a pressure wave bowing the glass, making it almost pliable, before it shatters into diamond confetti, and shards of armoured razors. It spits across the lab, vomiting heat and fire, shrapnel and noise. All the air in the room is consumed, and the cold air in the Cloister is sucked away to feed it, stealing the breath of anyone down there for a second, although violent time.

The airlock cycle pauses, the sturdy, miniature clean-room is proof against the violence, but the heat is fierce.

As Stitches makes it to the hologram door, he is shoved in the back, colliding with Nicios. It is by the Emperor's will they save each other's lives, Nicios breaking Stitches' fall as they tumble down the stairs in octopus tangle, Stitches bearing the brunt of the heat, his clothes scorched, but otherwise unharmed. The lab rocks, the hive protesting, and worse, the autoclave security grate is partially rent, leaking in a fraction of the punishing thermal power of the gargantuan hive-heat sink outside.

A belch of flame follows the first, a giant backfire muzzle blast that incinerates anything in the lab left behind.

In the cloister, several of the cylinders crack, the torque far too much for them to tolerate, never designed for such stresses.

The cogitator lets out a harsh beep of warning. A clarion call that a nurse or anyone with a brain would recognise as the screen floods red. Cracks become fractures, fractures become fissures, and the liquid begins to spill, the tanks draining, and those who might have been alive now face death. Whatever research was being conducted here, has now been destroyed.

The fluid is insufficient to prove a threat to you, quickly flooding the bay of the cloister, up to mid calf. So many people, perhaps wronged by this indignity now have no voice, and maybe, just maybe, those Seals weigh a little more in your palms.

General alarms go off, emergency bulkheads sealing, closing off the autoclave and the triage area.

All above and around the sanctum, is noise and confusion.

[A.T.]

Falk

The chaos, much as it might have made their situation worse, brought Falk some small comfort in knowing that the calculated and cold actions of those following them would not have been seeking this impediment. Their initiative had been lost, at least momentarily.

"Suit up and stay fast, if they have more explosives they have little reason to not use them now." Grabbing one of the suits Falk worked his way towards Reynard, the images of the room beyond gnawing at the edges of his gaze as he fought to keep focus on the immediate task.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

The whole Cloister shook and jumped for a moment. Countless cylinders cracked or even shattered in the tremors, sending their contents gushing across the floor. Reynard gave up on his goal of investigating and turned back to slosh towards the doorway. He passed Falk, the Arbitrator pulling on a pressure suit as he moved towards the back of the chamber. As Reynard arrived at the damaged portal, another body appeared in the triangular gap and he reached up to help pull them through. Nicios. As the little psyker splashed down, Reynard wordlessly pointed at the pile of suits and Stitches' face was revealed on the outside of the door behind him.

In between assisting the other agents, he pulled the hood of his own pressure suit up over his head and settled the mask in place over his face.

"Where are the other three?"

He yelled into the vox at Bardas and the two fighters still retreating from the Sanctum.

+++Make sure you pull the hidden door shut behind you!+++

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Lysimachus

[Mazer Rackham]

Sanctum Airlock (Upper):

Bardas gets up, thrown to the floor by the blast, he is none the worse for wear. With the danger over, there is only the scarlet light of emergency bulbs, and alarm claxons.

His vox has a little feedback that would be called white noise. He looks around. Sees the outside of the chamber.

++The female medicae auxiliary has ceased function, and the exit has lost power. Tarrant, assist me.++

He grips the airlock door handle, leverages his strength against it.

Cloister:

Despite the console being somewhat recalcitrant, there is a large handle below the sluice cover. It appears it can be opened by twisting a manual crank.

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal:

Remembering the detox capsules Tarrant self-administers a dose of detox which helps to alleviate some of the gas effects. He then administers doses to Scourge and Bardas to bring Scourge around and because Bardas probably lost his train-surfing. He also gives them and himself some doses of radiation inoculant just in case, he then injects them with a dose of Stimm .

The powerful drugs jolt Scourge awake although he was still a little groggy.

Tarrant assists Bardas with Scourge and they head for the sluice gate exit.

 

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

Reynard watched through the gap in the portal as the final team members stumbled down the stairs and into the second airlock. It took a few moments of pushing and tugging, but finally all three were up, over and through into the Cloister.

As they struggled to pull the final sets of coveralls on, Reynard stood for a moment, looking for any sign of their pursuers finding the hidden access. Nothing yet. Perhaps a few minutes at most.

Enough waiting. He turned and hurried towards the back of the chamber where three barely identifiable figures in sky-blue sterile suits stood by the sluice gate and the manual crank. Falk, Nicios and Stitches.

"They're almost covered up now. I don't know about you gentlemen, but I think it's time to get this thing open and get out of here?"

[Mazer Rackham]

As the hatch cranks open, the radcounters on your suits begin to click.

The sluice is big enough to fit one of the cylinders down, tapering into a funnel wide enough for human shoulders. It becomes apparent why the numbers and electro-pencil marks are used, the subjects were purged, the cylinders reused.

Technology is expensive, but human lives, are somewhat cheap.

The maw vanishes into a dark gullet, but the steel tube reflects the light dimly, proving it is coated, likely with an anti-friction material.

If you want to list who is going when, this will have no real effect other than to inform narrative of whoever drops in behind whom. 

If there's any last thing you want to do, now is the time.

[Lysimachus]

Reynard:

The team looked as one down into the blackness. No one seemed eager to go first. The rad-counter clicks seemed to get louder. Reynard moved the tablet that he had been holding in the pouch of his cheek since before putting his mask on out onto his tongue, then swallowed it down. Better safe than sorry.

And better to get it over with. Less time in range of whatever radiation they were registering… and if you were first down, at least it would be a surprise to anyone who might be waiting wherever you ended up? Not to mention they didn't know how long it would be before the black-garbed heavies were in the Cloister with them.

With a shrug, muffled by the plastic oversuit, Reynard swung his legs over the lip. He offered a quick, sardonic salute to the men around him, then used his hands to launch himself down the chute.

 

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal:

Tarrant set about making a suit from the ripped and much patched remnants that had been left behind. He donned a rebreather and used nasty tape to seal holes. 

No stranger to rads on Mans Voyage, he remembered climbing through many a yellow & black warning marked conduit as a juve.

Satisfied that he was rad armoured he jumped into the chute after the Weasel.

[Lord_Ikka]

Nicios

With Falk and Stitches getting the final two protective suits, Nicios followed the warrior's example and covered himself as much as possible with the scraps of damaged suits. He motioned for Falk and Stitches to follow the first two through the sluice while he and Bardas helped Scourge get protected and through the chute after them. 

As the last one left, he looked around to see if there was anything left to investigate, but there seemed to be nothing possible to retrieve in the time left. Sighing, he swallowed his anti-rad pill and climbed into the sluice, pulling the door closed as much as possible from the inside.

[A.T.]

Falk

Falk turned to Reynard, "there are not enough suits for the rest. Look for a purge valve or service hatch, we must do what we can to clear the way."

[Machine God]

Kerr Restal:

Prior to donning his rebreather Tarrant had put the rad pill under his tongue and then swallowed it when he put the mask on.

The things never made him sleepy.

Why were they referred to as naps? It was stamped on the tablet. Never After Preserved Sausage?