Base incursion

We decided to start looking at the middle opening. We had to start somewhere and we wouldn’t all fit in the smaller corridor but the big one was too big and we’d already had a poke at that and got half blown up. There was still plenty of room as the corridor was 15ft food wide and 8ft high.
 
Ilyara decided to turn into a Wolf so she could start sniffing around. I tried to use thermal imaging to see if it would pick anything up, anyone hidden or any power lines or generators. I had a scan around but couldn’t see anything. I pulled out Ilyara’s scanner which picked up some wires terminating in a manual handle. Unfortunately it seemed that the switch we needed was on the other side of the door.
 
Ilyara went off to the other tunnel to see if she could find another way in, it was possible the two tunnels met up further down. As she got to the end of the corridor and was sniffing around she discovered that the end of the corridor was false, it was actually a hologram and had a door hidden behind it. She’d come to get me to come and have a look and see if there was anything I could do with it, but being another analogue door there wasn’t much.
 
I shouted Max and got him to come see if there was anything he could do. Breaking things open was more his schtick than mine. He was able to peel back the front of the door which meant that I could get at the mechanism inside and get the door open. There was an airlock on the other side. Unfortunately prising the door open had obviously set off some kind of an alarm as there were red flashing lights and alarm claxons going off. Not wanting to delay getting into the base Max just stuck some C2 to the airlock doors and blew our way in.
 
Once we were through the second door we found we were in an anti-chamber with yet another door in front of us. At least this time there was something in this one that I could do something with. There were power boards and relays on the walls. There were no computer ports but at least I had access to the basic power systems and could open the next door. Unfortunately as I did, a grenade came sailing through. Fortunately Max’s reflexes were pretty good and he was able to grab the grenade and throw it back. It must have hit some barrels as there was a chain reaction of explosions and the guy that threw the grenade at us was killed. Once we got in there we realised we were pretty lucky as this was a storage room and on the opposite wall was stored more explosives that could have done quite a bit of damage.
 
Ilyara was sniffing around, we were looking for people but there was also an acidic smell in the air, it was more like a permeating background smell than a strong someone just spilled acid smell. I was obviously distracted as I was so busy trying to hack into the turret in the room I didn’t spot the beserkers coming in until one of them had clobbered me over the head. He must have knocked something loose inside as my optics went out and I was blinded. Fortunately it was just my external optics that were buggered and I could still hack the turret. If I wanted to move I’d have to jack into the awoobots and use their visuals but it was going to make moving difficult.
 
Maybe because I was ignoring everything going on in the room because I couldn’t see it to do anything, but I managed to get into the turret and take it over. I ran a quick diagnostic on myself and was able to get my eyes back online. At the same time I realised that someone else was trying to take back control of the turret. There was a hacker trying to take control back. I tried to hack into them directly and, despite the hacker having a breaker unit and a firewall, I was able to break in and drop a trojan spider in their systems. I was hoping the hacker would be distracted by me and not notice it as it would keep chipping away at the stability of their systems. I got a message on my display. ‘Robot body hey, you wanna play, lets fucking play’
 
Well, this wasn’t playing, this was an attack. They hacked in and immediately dropped a Nuk3 virus. Damn it. I should have done that myself but I’d wanted to try and get some data. The Nuke virus had affected my stability and kicked me out entirely. Everything seemed to have gone dark.
 
I ran a new ping but the only thing I could find was a few low grade comm devices that didn’t even seem to be connected to anything.
 
We got into the hangar room next and there was a space shuttle. Not high on the list of things I thought I was going to find today. Max found a generator room and two inactive robot bodies. We assumed inactive as there were no signals, lights or indicators. They were old atlas models but sturdy. These were pre-binding robots and still in very good condition. Possibly because it looked like they hadn’t moved or been disturbed in a very long time.
 
We headed over the hangar to the other side, trying to clear the base of anyone that could cause us problems and find the dedalus hostages. There was a minor device in one room and a lot of static. This was a tell-tale sign that hackers were up to something. I sent out a message to let everyone know.
 
I quickly cycled through the visual feed of the others to see what they were up to, I had a fair idea of where they were as their beacons were showing up on my radar. I got to Max in enough time to see what he was doing but not enough time to react and stop him. He was trying to blow something or someone up but he wasn’t far away enough from the explosives. Just as I thought, he was thrown backwards from the blast. I ping Ilyara and let her know and we go to check on him and the guy he was trying to blow up.
 
We were able to interrogate him and found out that one of the Dedalus Hostages was still alive, but pretty badly injured as there was a Dr trying to save her. He also told us that there was a massive creature in the caves at the back of the base. He said it would be a bad idea to blow the base up because the chances were all that would do would be to let out the creature
 
After some further interrogation it turns out that this guy, Boris, was from the same faction we liberated Igor from, albeit another, larger cell. We offered to try and get him out in return for his help to clear and secure the base and he was pretty happy with this. His cybernetic arm wasn’t working but between me and Ilyara we were able to get it back up and running.
 
He thought there were maybe 6-7 people left in the base from what we’d told him based on how many people he knew were there and how many we’d encountered. He wasn’t exactly sure on the numbers though so it could be a couple more or less.
 
He tells us to keep an eye out for Dr Sherman, one of the dedalus engineers. Over in the east wing there is woman, a hunter. In terms of our enemies, there was a leftenant through that door, Crane. He was the guy in charge and he is nasty. He likes to torture. Boris suggests that he is too dangerous to be left alive. Ilyara turns into a wolf again but can’t get anything as it smells too much like burning flesh because of Max, so she transforms back into her human form.
 
We were discussing what to do next when Boris said he could help us. I was suspicious as we had just tried to kill him. I know we were helping him to get out but it was a very sudden change of heart and I wasn’t sure if we could trust him just yet. I think Boris might have guessed what we were thinking as he reassured us that he wanted to get out and start a new life and we were the only ones who could help him with that at the moment. Max gave him his gun back and the two of them started discussing explosives. They also discussed exploiting the fact that they thought Boris was still one of theirs. He seemed genuine from what we could tell and it was worth a shot.
 
The bots were carrying quite a few grenades between them so we taped three of them together and handed that to Boris. I hacked into his comms so I could watch what was going on and alert the others if there were any issues.
 
I watched him punch through a door and throw the grenades through the hole. I wasn’t quite sure why one of us couldn’t have done that. I thought he was going to talk his way in. Either way he’d proven himself that he was prepared to work with us so that was something in his favour.
 
There had been two guys in the room before the grenades. I suppose there were still two guys, just spread out a little more. There was also a computer in there, fortunately it was pretty heavy duty and hadn’t been damaged by the explosion. Boris looked at me and gestured to the computer terminal ‘Maybe you can do something with that?’
 
I sit down at the terminal and start poking around to see what I can find. Fortunately it’s relatively easy as the guy that was hacking me had just been blown up. One of the first things I found was a comms that had been sent around about the creature in the caves at the back of the base.
 
That Daedalus Engineer, he actually made it out. His suit was ripped to fucking shreds, but he made it.
It was probably full after eating and infecting the other engineers.
That Doctor or Nurse or whoever she, Nadine, is that we pulled out of the cryopod is working on him.
Says she can save him, i'm not so sure though. Once that shit gets on your skin or in your lungs....everyone else we've sent in has melted or exploded. But the bitch seems smart.
That's why we're keeping her alive, if he survives he'll probable need regular care. That should stop both of them from trying to run, we're the only transport and healthcare for miles around.
And this people is why I'm in charge, Brigdes, make sure that those guns keep running, if that thing or it's spawn or whatever try and get out, they are our first, and probably last, line of defence.
Crane Out....
 
This was not like anything we’d ever seen before. It was likely a splicer, but it had gone further than anything should have ever gone.
 
The other thing I found looking at the computer was that the systems were ECSC - Earth Coalition Security Council. This was a big deal and could potentially mean a big payout. We’d need to keep an eye out for cryo-pods. ECSC scietnists were a big deal and could either net us a payout bigger than anything we thought possible, or access to game-changing technology.
 
I mentioned the cryo-pods and Boris told us about the med bay and the Dr. She was back there working on the Engineer from the convoy who was sick. We headed back there and the Dr told us that she could save him but he is pretty sick.
 
While there we also discuss the creature in the caves. They tell us that previously it has been ‘Fed’ and this seems to keep it happy and stops it trying to escape. When questioned on what they mean by feeding, it’s exactly what I think it is. Creatures from the desert but also prisoners or anyone who theory felt was no longer needed for the operation.
 
Just another day and another job with Broadcastle I suppose.