Session 5 - Friends in High Places Report

General Summary

The investigators retrieved Fiore, the Aberrant involved in the Huang-Marr project. He was interrogated on Mars by Andromeda, who struck up a rapport with him. Fiore advised that that one of the Beaulac Clinic scientists, Tobias Mangels, had been relocated to Earth by the project board. Mangels had been instructed to activate DNA-tailored memory alteration bioware app, but had sought Fiore’s assistance in manufacturing a vaccine to the substance. Fiore gave instructions on how to make the vaccine, which the Chinese government representatives were able to develop in their lab. Fiore asked for clemency, and understanding that his murder of the five people on Luna in the Boltzman Crater was an unfortunate incident. Andromeda arranged for the Aberrant to be stored in a cryopod, depending on the outcome of the investigation.   Aeon sent a message that one of the test subjects retrieved from the Beaulac Clinic, likely former doctor Jacob Ross, had demonstrated shapechanging powers and had escaped containment on Luna.   Fiore was asked about the pod, and the Justicar that the Solar Justice League had asked about, but wasn’t sure what they were talking about. Chinese agents investigated the pod and found it would launch into an empty part of space, presumably where another ship would rendezvous with it. They also noted how strange and advanced the technology looked.   Desiree, Andromeda, Rickard and Xzenon headed to Earth to investigate Clintech in New York. The city was a grim place, dominated by corporations, while gangs carried out firefights in the ruined lower streets. The invesigators found that Clintech was a philanthropic hospital, set up by billionaire weapons-manufacturer, XY. They used one of Desiree’s contacts to gain entrance to the FSA, and also arranged a tour of the hospital which looked a shining example of philanthropic wealth. During their investigations, they found they were tailed by FSA government agents. Desiree confronted agent ‘Fred’ who revealed that the FSA thought she was a spy for the Australian Government.   Desiree thought it was strange that Andrea Green had no compunctions about selling bioweapons to Europe, but told her that they suspected one of her employees of being involved in the secret Huang-Marr Project. Furious that her employees were abusing her resources, Green arranged a cocktail party on a boat where all of her executives could be investigated by the party.   On the boat, the investigators met up with the following suspects:   KAREN DIETRICH, Director of Research

• Mentioned that she had two grad students, Ella Huang and Abel Mar, who were clever but were seduced by the entire FSA’s let’s get ahead culture
• Huang was a practical researcher, working directly on Genemorphic Compression Syndrome, which is a mutation caused by the blight
• Marr had a disliking of rules and ethics.

During the party, Dietrich fell hard for Desiree, but was rebuffed. Dietrich retreated tragically the prow of the boat, where she stared out at the aching city lights and wept.   GEMMA FORRESTER, Clinic Director She was a pleasant woman, who talked about her charity work and the big picture. She didn’t have much idea of what was happening in the hospital at a low level.   CORE HEISLER, MEDIA DIRECTOR She was was capturing events on her camera drone, and noting things down for the corporate media reports. The investigators didn’t spent much time with her.   GUS SAUNDERS, Hospital Director, 12am to 8am, night shift

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• He looked a bit scruffy, and registered to Desiree as a talent. He chatted to the investigators somewhat arrogantly, and the left the party early, complaining about the music.
• The investigators pegged him as being the most likely executive involved in the HM Project.

  TOMAS CALANOTTO, Director of Organ Banks

• He was bit drunk and kept talking about how terrible everything was at the organ banks, and how he couldn’t get any resources
• He was pissed off at this new guy, Tuten, who kept telling everyone what to do and who kept filing annoying WHS reports.
• The investigators thought that it was likely this new guy was actually Tobias Mangels, relocated to the organ banks by the HM project board.

  JACOB WU He was a drunken guy who started to swear when Calanotto rambled on. He noted that the entire philanthropic idea behind the hospital was bunk, and that it was up to the average FSA citizen to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.   During the investigation, the group met Agent Fred again, and tormented him by pretending they were involved in a complex ARG.   Then, they received a newsflash of as strange spacepod crashing into the burned out districts of New York, in Jersey. OpNet footage by teen streamers showed the crashed pod, and something coming out of it…. Then the stream ended in a spray of blood!   Andromeda teleported to the pod crash site, where she saw the creature for a brief second before it flickered out of existence. “Mangels...” the creatures hissed before teleporting away. “Revenge!”   The investigators resolved to head towards the organ banks level of the hospital, to see if they could find Mangels before the creature - presumably a mutated Jacob Ross – could. Because Mangels knew the secrets of the HM Project...

Rewards Granted

3 XP