Session 55: Words that Kill
General Summary
The session began with the players going to confront The Duchess after Genevieve told them that she was in the study. The team in the office and Kenny and Cecile met up in the hall. Jimbob gave Jason acidic vomit with a magical pepper, and Jason breached by melting the door and kicking it in. The players ran in but could not see Roxanne in the dark. She spoke to them, her voice coming from different directions. Jimbob and Cecile struck out with psychic lances, but they failed to find their mark. She bid them to sit so hesitantly that they did.
Roxanne told them pieces they never knew existed were making moves on a board they can't conceive of. They were doomed, but they have a way out. Lay down their weapons, let her go, and surrender. She would defend them in their judgment by the Red Tide. The players obviously refused, and Jimbob tried again to attack, but she was apparently out of range.
Explosions rang out across the building, and fire could be heard spreading. Jimbob broke a hole in the ground and the team jumped down, then ran out into the foyer. The guests could be seen panicking. The team split up and got to saving trapped partygoers. Sharos swooped in and gave everyone their gear. Jason, Blair, Jimbob, and Quinten saved guests while Kenny and Cecile looted corpses. However, when Kenny saw a woman falling, he jumped to the rescue. The party eventually streamed out after all the civilians were safe. Jimbob flew Sharos into the air to scan for escaping enemies, but they couldn't pick any out from the crowd.
The rest of the team had also escaped. Jeremy insisted they focus on the mission, and he went to search the warehouses on the estate for the missing parts. The players began to help the civilians as emergency responders arrived.
The fires began to wane, so the responders began searching for survivors in the rubble. One yelled that they found one, and Jimbob heard a gunshot, but cast a temporal shunt to save the responder. He watched as the duchess climbed out of the rubble. She whispered words of psychic seduction, and Jimbob was turned to her side. She rose from the rubble, her skin and dress burned and tattered, but she peeled away her skin, revealing a robotic body underneath. Jimbob could never detect her because there were no human thoughts to detect, only computer programming.
The rest of the party jumped into action, unleashing everything they had on Roxanne to break her control, but being careful to not hurt Jimbob. However, Jimbob's psychic link to Roxanne empowered him, increasing the spells he could cast at a time. Jimbob used all of his power, raining fireballs down upon his allies.
The players fought hard, Kenny and May chained team attacks while Jason made full use of his gadgets, but Blair was approached swiftly by Roxanne, and the party witnessed as the Duchess whispered something in Blair's ear, causing her to release a blood-curdling scream and fall to her knees, unresponsive.
Roxanne began to weaken from the damage, so she called in reinforcements. A man with a full-body jet suit dove into battle, peppering the players with micro-missile barrages and volleys from his akimbo machine pistols. One of the missiles he let loose blew off Blair's right hand completely. However, the players were able to break Roxxane's control over Jimbob, turning the tide. Roxxane let out a psychic scream, but was countered by Jimbob. For a moment, she considered killing Jimbob where he stood, but she said out loud that she wasn't supposed to kill any of them. Instead, she let out another psychic scream, knocking out nearly the entire party, but Ellie came in clutch, healing all of them.
With that rally, Roxxane was slain, and the pilot, Viper, tried to retreat. Kenny grappled him with a toss from May, but Viper boosted upwards hard, burning Kenny and breaking his grip. Viper let out a final barrage of micro missiles as he retreated, knocking out nearly the entire party, but with him retreating, the responders quickly tended to their injuries.
The players checked in Blair to find her still unresponsive, the EMTs checked her for concussion or other afflictions, but couldn't diagnose anything. They saw Genevieve run up into the rubble, crying out in anguish, and dropping to her knees to cradle Blair. She screamed at them that this was their fault for dragging her deeper into the mercenary life, then they told her Roxxane had done this. This broke Genevieve, she said in disbelief that Roxxane loved her and they were going to build something better.
Genevieve didn't resist as she was hauled off by the minutemen, and the liberators reacted to Blair's condition. May nearly broke down while Jeremy, Alexander, and Gug went in circles about the investigation for the traitor and who released Genevive.
The team was distraught, but the party knew they had to keep moving. Jeremy found the parts, and Sturges brought Peqoud around so they flew north to Hanscom ACB.
When they touched down, they were greeted by Lucas himself, who thanked them for gathering the parts, saying the project could save the nation. He and his men began unloading, but he noticed one of the crates had been opened. He had reached his limit, saying their lax security may have lost them the war. He spoke to General Miller, then assigned a Minuteman security consultant, Brady, to monitor Vantage. Jane's orders were a total security lockdown for a week under Brady's supervision to recoup and then deploy the full company to the south.
The Liberators agreed and flew home, landing only to see Kutter and his squad arrive in the elevator, soon followed by Gramps, Barry, and their whole company that had been deployed south.
Jason and Benjamin lock the fuck in completing 8 projects that week with the science team. They complete new weapons for Jason, a laser lever-action rifle and a laser revolver. They construct new weapons for the rest of the team. Ultra compact Plasma Throwing Knives for Cecile, the final version of Kutter's Power Claw. A plasma shoto for Kenny, compact and deadly. An upgrade for Quinten's rifle. Finally, they at long last complete Sharo's .50 Cal, adding new special features to increase its versatility.
Finally, with time for one final large project, a decision had to be made. RM proposed constructing the Railcannon artillery piece she was designed to wield, now that its schematics had been recovered from the Institute bunker's database. It would be critically useful on the Southern Front, where they would likely face heavy armor. Alternatively, Benjamin said they could perform rudimentary Synth Organ replacement, growing a new hand for Blair, meaning she hopefully wouldn't lose any dexterity with her now severed shooting hand. The catch was that it had to be done soon, or else her nerves might not make the connections properly. Ultimately, Jason decided to make the synth arm for Blair, as the railcannon could be made later.
Meanwhile, Jimbob and Kenny were digging deep into the company, trying to find a mole. Jimbob used his spiders to perform Orwellian surveillance and tried to bait out suspects with a trapped door leading to a decoy schizoboard. The players heard eventually that their involvement in wiping out the Crimson Hand had leaked, but Yafim Barbrov was taking the fall, staging the equipment to do it, and admitting to it in court. Eventually, Jimbob, Kenny, and Jason got to interviewing their main three suspects, Alexander, Jeremy, and Gug. After numerous rounds of interviewing, one person's story wasn't adding up, Alexander, the very man meant to root out the mole. All the suspects' rooms were searched, bringing up nothing suspicious but a hidden smut folder on Alexander's terminal.
With little left to go off dramatic measures had to be taken. Kenny knew what had to be done, but Jimbob was extremely against torturing Alexander for the truth, as he had done so much for the company. Brady seemingly also knew what had to be done, engineering a situation where Jimbob was removed from the room, leaving just Jason and Kenny.
Kenny was the first to act, slamming Alexander’s face into the table and breaking his nose. Alexander responded by doubling down, insulting the group, their methods, and their perceived hypocrisy. As the tension escalated, Major Hank Richards entered the room and offered to assist. Upon seeing him, Alexander revealed that he wasn't what he said. Hank wasn't Brotherhood, he was Enclave. The players put that aside for further investigation and let Hank at him. Without warning, Richards uppercutted Alexander with the containment crate, sending him flying into the far wall. He rebounded off the surface and landed on the coffin itself, which was cracked open by Richards. The entity inside responded immediately, extending countless significantly more human-like limbs that pinned Alexander down against the lid.
The interrogation continued. Whenever Alexander attempted to lie, the entity burned him where it touched him, forcing him to speak truthfully. Under this pressure, Alexander admitted that he had, in fact, been the mole—and that he had no regrets about it.
He explained that after he attempted to report the Liberators for the deaths of fourteen civilians in the Bunker Hill operation, a Red Tide herald intercepted him. The herald made him an offer: if Alexander agreed to report on the Liberators, the Red Tide would leave Starlight untouched. Alexander accepted.
The conversation continued. Alexander stated that while he may have once been uncertain, recent events had solidified his perspective. The party’s elimination of the Crimson Hand, followed by their willingness to collaborate with Colt Maverick Steele, had, in his view, confirmed their nature. He outlined his belief that the Liberators were ruthless mercenaries who justified extreme actions in pursuit of victory, broke into the CFR at Jason’s discretion despite the risks, and made backchannel deals with self-serving arms dealers.
Kutter attempted to reach out to him. Alexander stated that he still respected Kutter for trying to keep the group on a steady course.
The players pressed him further, arguing that they were fighting a war for survival and that moral compromises were sometimes required. They made their case that sacrifices had to be made in order to win. In response to this, Alexander proposed an alternative to execution.
Since capture would lead to Starlight’s destruction, and execution would waste an asset, Alexander suggested a double-agent plan. He would continue feeding intel to the Red Tide—accurate enough to maintain their trust, but not enough to compromise the Liberators. In return, the players could use him to extract information and deliver false intelligence as needed. If the Minutemen lost the war, he would have preserved Starlight. If the Liberators won, he was willing to be proven wrong.
Richards activated the entity again. This time, it healed Alexander, removing all visible evidence of the interrogation, though the memory of it remained for everyone present.
With the matter resolved, Brady declared the investigation concluded and lifted the internal lockdown on the Liberators. Alexander was quietly reintegrated into operations, now under covert restrictions and monitored by a newly assigned “personal assistant,” which he accepted.
After all was said and done, no one liked what they had to do, but Kenny and Jason knew it had to be done, and even Jimbob, now knowing the truth, regretted holding them back. Kutter was glad they didn't have to turn him in or kill him, still hoping he could turn him around, as he still cared for Wolfe.
