Sessie 3: At Station 18 Report
General Summary
The heroes are seperated in the Biodome, but after a short while wandering through the forest like part of the Biodome Khadyr finds Shamus. Arman has met Wahina and she asks him about his purpose for coming to the station. During the conversation, Khadyr and Shamus find and join Armand.
Suddenly a woman appeared from the forest. She said her name was Kordoban Wahina. The last years she had worked on the Space Station 18 alone. To perform her research she created her assistants: The Charab and Protectors: The Kobu. At that moment Khadyr, Shamus and Jihan met up with us. We had a lot of questions about the station and why she was alone. Apparently she was performing research about a new genetic code. But the results did not please some of her associates and the Legion. When the Legion arrived to stop her they were killed by the Kobu. Since that time she was working alone.
There we were, in the Biodome jungle. Still seperated from Armand. Shamus, although very proud of his enormus jump, was anxiously looking around, while frantically rubbing the Lady of Tears in his hands. Suddenly the Talisman began to glow and vibrate. Shamus pushed on the Talisman to stop it from glowing an vibrating. Well, the glowing stopped alright, but instead the Talisman began to transmit a holograpgic videomessage. Before us we saw four people at some kind of inauguration in a stadium. Jihan cried out: "Look that's my father". Next to him stood a very beautiful woman. Before we could really make out what we were looking at, the holovideo stopped. Jihan was very upset and cried out: "Father". Suddely I heard gunshots! Oh my god, we weren't alone at rthe station. No time to loose. We had to find Armand. Luckely Armand wasn't very far away. But ... he wasn't alone. He was talking to a very beautiful woman, called Wahina. It was the same woman we saw in the holovideo standing next to Jihan's father. She seemed to take a liking to Armand :( She told us a most incredeble story of what had taken place at Station SS-18. It was Wahina who made all those strange creatures and the little children, she called them the Charab. The Charab were her eyes and ears. That's how she knew we could be trusted and weren't out to kill anyone. She slso created the Kobu, her soldiers, moving around like shadows. The Charab told Wahina that there are others at the station, with no good intentions. Then I remembered the gunshots. Where did we get ourselfs into, I thought. We had to get out of here as soon as possible.The heroes find out that the person they were talking to is actually a clone of the real Wahina. And the clone was, unknowingly to them, testing the heroes if they are willen to help or have to be treated like enemies and killed by the Kobu. The fake Wahina leads the heroes to the real Wahina. Wahina is located in one of the service units that lie beneath the biodome, in what was previously a water treatment plant – a nice, drippy, gloomy backdrop for encountering Wahina herself and a good moment to build up the atmosphere. Wahina now looks like a gigantic skin-coloured tissue mass filling almost the entire hall and having grown around some of the pipes and pumps in the room. The creature is vaguely conically shaped and in its middle is a deformed, stretched face that can yet be recognized as Wahina’s. Along the walls in the room, three Kobu patrol.
Kordoban wanted us to go with her to the workshop. This was in a service unit beneath the Biodome. When we arrived we found a lot of strange thing. But the big surprise was in the center of the room. The "original" Wahina: more plant than human. She made a clone of herself: Kordoban. Because of the nature of her expirements she had transformed herself to be able to resist the portals she was working on.
In answer to our question if Wahina could get us out of the Biodome, she took us to one of the service units that lie beneath it. Entering the service unit we saw an enormous creature that seemed to be completely one with her surroundings. When we stepped a bit closer we saw a face in the enormous pile of skinlike tissue. Shamus, peeped from behind Armand back, said: "But, that's the face of Wahina". The creature smiled. "You are right little one. I'm the real Wahina. The Wahina you met is a clone of my DNA". We moved futher into the room and noticed there were also three Kobu present. The kobu, who were untill then only vague shadows to us, turned out to be real fearsom creatures.Wahina has always been obsessed with life, its spread in the universe and the countless forms that it has taken, as well as the myriad of still unseen forms it could take. Through colleagues at Ahalimm she learned that the Foundation was planning to open a new research station to research long-lived biotopes: station SS-18. Through her contacts and her considerable bionic knowledge, she managed to land a position as doctoral student with the famous bionic engineer Ferida Kaar, who was responsible for the operation of the biodome of SS-18. Once on the station, Wahina realized the full potential of the station but was at the same time frustrated that her colleagues didn't see the possibilities of the station and it's surroundings. In secret, she began to experiment with completely new research in the lab. After some big discussions and fights Wahina saw no other option then to kill everybody on the station. After that, the Legions was ordered to destroy the station. By sheer luck and thanks to some quick reactions, Wahina managed to escape the Legion's attempts to destroy the station. Once the attacks stopped, she could spend all her time refining her bio-code and her sister creatures. Slowly but surely, she has used vacuum organisms to reconfigure the station. She tells the heroes about the Khayaala’s Gardens as her big inspiration for the gift she is working on. The only thing that still gnaws at her otherwise pragmatic mind is that she had to kill the entire crew. Their genetic code lives on, but she still cannot let go of the guilt. Hence, she has taken the time to create what she calls her gift to Reach’s people. She shows big remorse for the killing of everybody at the station. She then urges the Heroes to hurry as time is short. The Task Force Massar has entered the station to destroy it and her own attempts to neutralize them have failed.
Wahina, the real one, told us that she always had been obsessed with life in all it's form. And when she got a chance to work as doctoral student with the famous bionic engineer Ferida Kaar, who was responsible for the operation of the biodome of SS-18, she took it. Once on the station, Wahina realized the full potential of the station she began to experiment with completely new research in the lab. The other scientist however didn't agree. Because she knew her research was very important and could be a huge gift to humanity, she saw no other possibility than to kill the entire crew. Her face was griefstricken and I could see tears in her eyes when she told us what she had done to the crew. We had to hold Jihan back, while he cried out: "Murderer, you killed my father". Wahina spoke remorsefull when she said: "I know, and I'm sorry. But there was no other way. The would have destroyed my work. If it is any consolation to you, his genetic codes still lives on." Because of wahina's actions, the Legion ordered to destroy the station, but they failed. After that Wahina continued her work, using the Khayaala’s Gardens as her big inspiration for the gift she was working on. While she was telling us her story she sometime closed her eyes ad if she was going back to her memories.The Heroes must rescue themselves (and probably Wahina and SS-18) from imminent doom. There is no way they would survive if the Task Force accomplish their objective. After going down to the recreation facility, they must neutralize the soldiers and disarm the bomb. The route to the facility is open. The only challenge is that it they must get there swiftly. She hands over the keycode to the armory and sends a Kobu with them to show them the shortest way to the recreation area with the Zero-G gym. The keycode works and the heroes find a working wepaon with ammunition. The Kobu then leds them to a service duct and they enter it.
Suddenly it looked like Wahina woke up into reality. She begged us to help her from the treath that was now present at the station. The Charab foun out that a Task Force of the Legion had entered the station in order to destroy it by planting a nuclear bomb at the recreation area. The Kobu she send out to protect the station weren't able to fight them of. Armand and I looked at eachother. Our first thought was to save ourselfs, because there was no way we would survive if the Task Force accomplished their objective. We had a common goal and that was to neutralize the soldiers and disarm the bomb. So we agreed to help Wahina, because by doing so, we would also save ourselfs. Wahina gave us the keycode to the armory where we found a working wepaon with ammunition. The Kobu, Wahina send with us, led us quickly to te recreation area. Even Shamus knew the situation was serious and he no longer looked scared but determined to make it out alive. Bcause the door was blocked, we crawled through the air shaft. We sneaked up on the Task Force who were holding up at the Zero-G Gym.
Death and destruction at the Zero-G Gym
The Task Force's blasting technicians have decided to place the thermonuclear mine in the whirlpool alcoge. The squad has come here in much the same way as the Heroes and were also discovered by Charab (fighting them off, which the Heroes may have heard in the distance). Wahina has sent several Kobu to overwhelm them, but before they could reach the intruders, a defensive perimeter had been established with a Dayal Gun turret and some mines. The soldiers have now placed the bomb, but not managed to arm it and leave the recreation facility yet. They plan to make an explosive exit through the floor, using a breach charge to open an escape route towards the area below the recreation area and then onwards towards their ship.Because we did not appeared to be hostile she had not ordered our death. Instead we were asked to help with the battle against a squad of the Legion. We agreed to help her. After picking up a twin-barrell shotgun in the armory for Shamus we were of to the rec. room. The Kobu led the way. After surprising the Legion Soldiers when we used an airduct the battle ensued. Quickly we shot two of the soldiers on guard and i was able to disable an automated turret. Then the battle was over. The legion soldiers managed to blow up a wall and flee with the Kobu in pursuit.
The Kobu, who Wahina send to stop the Task Force, were pinned down in one of the hallway's becouse of a defensive perimeter that had been established bij the Task Forve with a Dayal gun turret and some mines. We were just in time to see that the one of the blasting technician placed a thermonuclear mine in the whirlpool alcoge and an other one placed smaler bomb to make an explosive exit through the floor. We saw no other way then to fight. First we had to nutralize the two soldiers nearest to the Dayal Gun, so the Kobu could get through to help us. We had the advantage of a sneak attack, but the Task Force was very strong. I was hit serveral times, and barely made it. After two attempts Armand and Shamus were able to disarme the nuclear bomb. Unfortunatly the other device exploded, giving the task Force an escape route. The Kobu quickly followed the running Soldiers. Still trembling on our feet, we followed. Relieved that the eminent threat was gone, we realised that the fight wasn't over. We had to follow those soldiers in order to prevent them from doing futher harm to the ship, to Wahina or to us.
