Issue 3 - The Rock and the Hard Place
"Quote"
—Speaker, context
Recap
Two simultaneous alerts on the same night force our heroes to choose which to pursue: On one side of the city, a gtoup of individuals led by Matryoshka has infiltrated a production facility for military vehicles. On the other, suspicious activity has been detected at the Metahuman Research Center (location). Our intrepid heros decide to pursue the latter.
Arriving at the scene, the facility is eerily quiet. Backup defenses are still active, forcing our heroes to fight past turrets and hack their way though security (courtesy of Alma), finding through the cameras that some strange creature is moving though the facility.
They follow it deeper into the installation to find the remaining security forces appear to be under its control. The heroes take caution to use non-lethal force to subdue them, which is kind of a pain when they're firing laser rifles at you.
Our heroes pursue the creature to a room bearing a large sealed metal door – the entrance to the Omnis Potentia Research Lab. There, they confronted more guards as the creature appeared to flit through walls and evade their attacks. Eventually the creature speaks directly to the heroes minds, asking for a "mutually beneficial arrangement." It tells them advanced security forces draw close, and it will spare them if the assist in opening the door. Our heroes reject the offer, and briefly confront the creature. It vanishes right before the guards rush in. The heroes surrender, as a breeze seems to flow past them back toward the entrance.
Lengthy indidividual interrogations follow. Our heroes' story that they sought to stop Brain Leech remains consistent (because it is true), and the forces determine they were also not involved with another simultaneous intrusion that occurred elsewhere in the facility.
While the Center is none too pleased with their break in, they are forced to conceed that the heroes' actions did help them. They explain the facility's primary defense systems went down following recent damage to the power grid in that area. The teams agree to share contact information in exchange for passing on any information they find about the intruders and contacting them for permission before coming to aid next time.
Highlights
- Alma's technological aptitude was invaluable in accessing the facility's security systems.
- Paladin accidentally hit one of the guards a little too hard, causing cerebral hemorrhaging. Panicking that he may have accidentally broken his vow against killing, he frantically tried to stabilize the man mid-combat. Thankfully, he succeeded.
