After your group gathers itself up, taking tea and checking weapons and other preparations, you begin working your way down the hallway through the door that was left open for you. As you progress through myriad empty rooms and corridors you start to realize that most of the facility this far down seems to be in working condition. Lights are on, air circulates through vents and the sound of machinery echoes throughout. It isn't until you reach some sort of storage room that you find an signs of life however.
You step into a cavernous room, almost as large as the one holding the cooling systems. This one has rows upon rows of what appear to be medical stasis pods. Judging from the lights on them, they are all operating. Shakti realizes this was the room she saw in her vision. Jalera is visibly on edge. "This place feels, wrong," she whispers.
"Yes, indeed, there is something *very* wrong with this place - can you see the creatures in the ceiling?" Burgurk says, pointing them out.
|
= 13
Atlas' large head follows where Burgurk is pointing. His A-TAC gets to work breaking the shallow darkness and getting on with the important business of acquiring targets.
"Affirmative, I see them," Atlas says, seeing them quite clearly. "There are several child-sized creatures attempting to hide among narrow rafters and they are not doing a good job of it.
They have shiny eyes indicating an altered state.
I recommend immediate eradication."
His grenade launchers slides silently out of his shoulder.
"I would suggest that we find out their intentions towards us first. No point in killing someone who's not an enemy - it's a waste of ammo."
"I agree with you on the pragmatic side, though if they are infected with the local version of vampirism, they could prove a significant threat if we leave them at our backs. If things go poorly, running into them while wounded an harried could potentially mean the end of us. It might be more practical to simply eliminate them now."
The children on the rafters don't seem to move much as you watch them. They don't flinch as Atlas's weapon comes out. They do however start to whisper among themselves, pointing in your direction.
Jalera shakes her head, her furred ears twitching. "No, the children are of no concern. It is what is in the vats that worries me. It seems as if the living souls that should be there are.. gone, but there is still some semblance of life in them, as if something else is keeping them going, besides the machinery. It is difficult to explain, but these may not be 'normal' vampires."
Burgurk tries to sense the presence of the children's minds to see what he can determine, but discovers that he can no longer do that.
Shakti opens herself up to pull up a little more power, and hopefully get a better picture of what might be affecting the children.
Sir Humphrey's mallet is drawn, as he nods. "Hrm. Perhaps the vats themselves are the cause of this particular strain of vampirism? That's a mystery I'd be willing to uncover. Isn't the definition of a 'zombie' to be a soulless body? Vampire Zombies, perhaps?" If he's scared, he doesn't show it. "What a fascinating application of the arcane that would be."
As Shakti meditates on the children for a moment, Burgurk starts to realize what once was natural to him is now lost. His powers over matter however seems to have grown, as bits of dust particles swirl around him when he concentrates. It is about then that a few more lights come on and you hear a familiar female voice over the loudspeaker.
"Well, well. It seems that you have come directly into my parlor." A short laugh later, she continues, "You are welcome to come and get me, but you'll have to get through them first." She laughs again and then the loudspeaker goes quiet. After another moment, you hear a lot of beeping alarm sounds from some of the vats, along with the sound of air being released as they begin to open...
|
|
Atlas just stared at the intervening conversation, unable to really follow it, and his A-TAC was sort of convinced that he'd end up opening fire anyway.
He felt mildly justified when a familiar voice came on with an obvious villain-taunt.
As the vats begin their decompression, faster than human thought could follow, his A-TAC interfaced with his onboard Central Electronis Package and his slotted skill-chip, running a thousand million Repair analytics of the machines, determining the purpose of, literally, every part, hose, and gizmo, and coming back with a solution to what could be causing the apparent air&alarm...along with a course of action to fix it.
Burgurk looks around the room for any kind of console, or bank of equipment, that looks like it might be controlling the vats. Maybe if he can do that mind "blast" he did yesterday to the equipment, it'll stop working...
Burgurk and Atlas frantically search for a main off switch or some sort of way to stop the vats from opening. Burgurk notes that there seem to be a lot of wires and tubes everywhere, but Atlas notes that there seems to be one main control bus and gets to work disabling it. Some of the creatures are starting to climb out of the vats...
Shakti will give Atlas a little help with his task, boosting his knowledge of systems and repair.
Sir Humphrey's brow furrows as the vats begin hissing, his eyeballs almost popping out, swelling with blood. "Scoundrellous witch! Hide behind the bodies all you wish,", he roars as he slams his mallet into the frame of the nearest vat, "no vat-born gnats can stand the might of the British Empire!" The hammer slams into the vat, metal giving way to metal, as the door snaps shut. "And our ingenuity!", he roars.
As Atlas delicately attempts to shut down the entire system with the help of Shakti's divine insight and Burgurk's psychic vision, Humphrey takes a more direct approach, smashing everything in sight. With the sound of crunching metal and crashing glass, several machines are left destroyed along with desiccated bodies that collapse into a heap. Several more of them power down and their occupants are unable to survive the sudden loss of energy. Some are however able to break free in time to mount an attack and judging by the sheer number of machines that there were, the situation could have been much worse. At least twenty are still moving and they don't look like they want to chat..
Atlas unloads a full railgun burst into a group of the creatures and even as body parts and other detritus fly off and the penetrating shells rip through vats and wires and tubes, causing gouts of steam and other liquids to spurt everywhere, the creatures are still coming. Only two of them seem to have been stopped permanently.
Burgurk tries to see what his new abilities can do :
Flustered, he tries again :
= 20
And to his surprise, a massive bolt of mental energy flies towards one of the un-harmed creatures, doing
= 25
And to his amazement, he discovers he can do it again! He focuses on another un-harmed creature :
= 17
Doing
And when he's finally done, he discovers that he has not expended any of his mental reserves!
Two more of the creatures blow apart as Burgurk tries his newfound abilities out.
"Once more, my fellows, ONCE MORE!", Sir Humphrey roars as he dives into the grenade cavalcade with nary a worry, his hammer crashing heavily into a vampire. "I will smell your fear, mindless knaves!", he roars into a beast's face as his sword buries into its ribs. "Run, as all enemies of the Crown!"
Shakti uses her divine power to help her companions in the fight, giving each a new insight into the ways of combat.
As she does so, the remaining creatures descend on you. Atlas's armor keeps him from being seriously damaged, but Burgurk is seriously hurt by the powerful blows from these things. Sir Humphrey easily deflects the attacks as he relives the Battle of Waterloo in his mind. Shakti and Jalera, using their combined mystical power, are able to keep the creatures from doing anything for the time being.
Seeing Burgurk viciously assaulted by the vampires, Sir Humphrey flies into an even greater frenzy, aided greatly by Shakti's magics. "Scoundrels! Fiends!", he roars, as his hammer flattens a vampire's ribcage. As if by force of sheer insanity, or even fear, his flashing sword deflects the blows. "Atlas, hark again the thunder of cannons!", he turns towards the combat android.
The three creatures attacking Humphrey disintegrate into gore and ichor as he easily tears through them.
Burgurk tries to shake off the pain of the attack and concentrate :
He tries again to use his new-found power :
= 30
Doing
And again :
If that hits, doing
= 24
And again :
If that hits, doing
and
respectively.
Burgurk's bolts of force and Atlas's railgun tear into more of the undead beings attempting to rip you apart as Shakti and Jalera attempt to keep the magical powers assisting you active. The remaining abominations continue their relentless assault, scratching harmlessly against Atlas's armor, but bringing the Simvan down to the ground with a final hit. Shakti and Jalera are also starting to be overrun as well...
Soaking :
Shakto's divine power sees her through the brunt of the assault by the remaining animated beings and she easily plants her weapon into the neck of one of them. As she does so, she briefly sees a vision of someone she knew from the past and at the last moment stops herself from plunging it through the other side.
Burgurk tries to shake off the pain of the attack and concentrate :
And continues to attack the creatures mentally :
Doing
= 36
He shouts "Can anyone heal me, like right now???"
Burgurk, through the haze of pain now clouding his mind, is only able to blast one more of the creatures apart as his wounds start to wear on him. Atlas's weapon barrel begins to glow red as he pours fire into the remaining assailants, dropping several more.
"Last round at the bar, bloodsuckers! Ring the bell, and give us one for the road!", Sir Humphrey roars thunderously into the face of one of the remaining vampires, before ringing its skull with his mallet. "I suggest you fall, cur!", he shouts at the other one, thrusting his saber into its ribcage.
Humphrey crushes the skull of one creature and eviscerates the final one. The five of you stand among the ruins of all the capsules, over a hundred bodies all around you in various states of ruin and decay. The machines themselves are destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable. An annoyingly familiar voice comes over the loudspeaker.
"Well, well. It seems I will have to do things myself. I must say, congratulations are in order. You could have saved them, every one of them, but instead, you do what all heroes do, smash first. Oh well. I'll be waiting for your arrival." She laughs as the feed cuts out.
|
|
After thrusting in a fresh clip, Atlas reaches down one large battle fist and his metal claw crunches down on a corpse's skull. Servos whirring, he bring the thing up by the head and brings his eyes close, giving it a good look.
His fist of steel turns it this way and that, before finally letting it crash to the ground. "I deem a high percentage that we are better off having not saved them. You do not save a rabid dog," he says, looking to the others to see if they are ready to go on.
Shakti crosses to Burgurk, and lays a hand on him.
Burgurk simply says "Thank you, Shakti."
Turning to the group-as-a-whole, he says "So, do we explore this place any further, or go after Grayspear? Anyone have any idea where she might be holed up?"
So, we continue on...
You travel among the corridors and chambers for a while, finding more detritus and abandoned facility material than anything else. Eventually you come to a large opening and a long causeway that leads to a massive vault door. Other than a bit of water coming in from somewhere, it appears that other than you, nothing has been here in some time. There is little in the way of lights or sounds and even the strange vine material is minimal here.
Burgurk feels something twist in his mind as he looks at the scene, then suddenly he sees...something completely different! It takes him a second to process the new information, then he says "Beware! There is enchantment here, and what you see may not be what is real! That vault door is actually open, and covered in runes. I sense great danger within."
|
|
Atlas, approaching the closed door, had been about to reach out and try opening it, whether it wanted to or not. But at Burgurk's warning, he pulls back. "Acknowledged. Do you sense the purpose of the runes?"
Ever one to try violence, he lowers his weapon, but his A-TAC is unsure, and he hesitates. "Do...I...if the runes are activated by stimuli, then perhaps firing at the door will trigger them, and allow us to pass by? ...or...or I could open the door further with an inanimate object?"
Unused to dealing with straight-up magic, he pauses, getting conflicting suggestions from his programming.