Double Exposure Part 2: Purity
General Summary
After staking out New Day’s treatment facility for a few days, their plan to sneak in went belly up in the opening moments when they got the attention (and the bullets) of the Knight Errant Peace Officers guarding the facility. While half the team kept the KEPOs busy the other half tried to use the distraction to get inside the facility. It became apparent that something was not right with the Knights. One had killed himself with a grenade in order to bring down O'Dundin's summoned Rage Spirit. Another showed virtually no reaction to a bleeding gut wound inflicted by Vola, and then grappled her with acid secreting hands. Smashing his faceplate revealed a maw of sharpened human teeth and insectoid mandibles beneath the cracked stronglass.
In the underground vat room, the runners discovered the horrific truth: New Day's purification process used toxic spirits to absorb the toxins in the water and soil as dog-sized insect larvae consumed their diseased flesh. After Grendel quietly pacified a dataslave in the office, Mina jacked into his computer to dig up the info. There she found Walden's persona. He used their commotion to deck in himself and gather the data. Realizing that his client could never use nor be allowed to use this treatment process, he went ahead with his secondary mission. He declared, "Terra First, baby" before jacking out.
The plant erupted in a series of detonations that left a sinkhole exposing the vats. The swarm of larvae flew out at the runners, followed by the towering forms of the toxic water and earth spirits. The pacified dataslave rose up and attacked, his form quickly mutating into a nightmarish fusion of flesh and chitin. Grendel's punch was met with a splatter of acidic blood which burned into Mina's limp body. Her dumpshocked mind could barely make sense of the other dozens of wageslaves that were transforming into horrific monsters as Grendel made a hole in the ceiling and flew them out. In the air, he saw several VTOL copters converging on their location, all baring the Knight Errant logo.
Jenobli used her lighting magic to dispatch the toxic water spirit, but not before it became an acidic torrent that submerged Rosie. O'Dundin and Vola were near to dispatching the KEPOs when Dex, too late, saw what was happening in the astral: Insect Spirits were escaping the KEPO bodies as they fell, the inhabiting spirit still very much alive. They materialized and swarmed the runners as they made their retreat.
In a moment of inspiration, Vola and O'dundin used the insecticide they had stolen as makeshift grenades. The attacking material insects screached as the toxin burned their malformed flesh. Squid had kept the van ready and covered their escape with his drones as they piled in. In the distance, they saw the VTOL response team firebomb the New Day facility, leaving nothing but a smoldering ruin.
Luckily, Mina had found something on New Day's servers. This facility, and the Knight Errant guard, were operating independent of their parent corporations. This was a rouge facility secretly working with the Universal Brotherhood to dispose of the people in those vats. These people were refuse left over from experiments being conducted at Camp Faith. Much of this wouldn't hold up in court, as it was was conjecture from reading the names of empty files copied from the database at Camp Faith. If they wanted their evidence for Juarez, that was where they would find it.
In the underground vat room, the runners discovered the horrific truth: New Day's purification process used toxic spirits to absorb the toxins in the water and soil as dog-sized insect larvae consumed their diseased flesh. After Grendel quietly pacified a dataslave in the office, Mina jacked into his computer to dig up the info. There she found Walden's persona. He used their commotion to deck in himself and gather the data. Realizing that his client could never use nor be allowed to use this treatment process, he went ahead with his secondary mission. He declared, "Terra First, baby" before jacking out.
The plant erupted in a series of detonations that left a sinkhole exposing the vats. The swarm of larvae flew out at the runners, followed by the towering forms of the toxic water and earth spirits. The pacified dataslave rose up and attacked, his form quickly mutating into a nightmarish fusion of flesh and chitin. Grendel's punch was met with a splatter of acidic blood which burned into Mina's limp body. Her dumpshocked mind could barely make sense of the other dozens of wageslaves that were transforming into horrific monsters as Grendel made a hole in the ceiling and flew them out. In the air, he saw several VTOL copters converging on their location, all baring the Knight Errant logo.
Jenobli used her lighting magic to dispatch the toxic water spirit, but not before it became an acidic torrent that submerged Rosie. O'Dundin and Vola were near to dispatching the KEPOs when Dex, too late, saw what was happening in the astral: Insect Spirits were escaping the KEPO bodies as they fell, the inhabiting spirit still very much alive. They materialized and swarmed the runners as they made their retreat.
In a moment of inspiration, Vola and O'dundin used the insecticide they had stolen as makeshift grenades. The attacking material insects screached as the toxin burned their malformed flesh. Squid had kept the van ready and covered their escape with his drones as they piled in. In the distance, they saw the VTOL response team firebomb the New Day facility, leaving nothing but a smoldering ruin.
Luckily, Mina had found something on New Day's servers. This facility, and the Knight Errant guard, were operating independent of their parent corporations. This was a rouge facility secretly working with the Universal Brotherhood to dispose of the people in those vats. These people were refuse left over from experiments being conducted at Camp Faith. Much of this wouldn't hold up in court, as it was was conjecture from reading the names of empty files copied from the database at Camp Faith. If they wanted their evidence for Juarez, that was where they would find it.
Unearthed Secrets
- Insect spirits do not exist. But they do. Fuck.
- Every single person in the treatment plant, from the wage slaves to the KE security, had been inhabited by an insect spirit. Double fuck.
- Thankfully, this facility seems to be an isolated incident and NDE management is unaware of it. But... it looks like the Universal Brotherhood may be almost entirely compromised by insect spirits. Ultra fuck.
- When the wage slave was questioned using the magic ring, he answered the activation question, "Whom do you serve?" with "The Queen." Before things got buggy, the runners assumed this meant Magwyn. Oh shit.
- New Day Water is people! The Insect Spirits running the plant purified the water and soil by using toxic spirits to siphon it into human bodies which were then slowly devoured by insect larvae. Apparently they love that toxic shit.
- Insect Spirits seem to mostly operate on the same rules as other spirits. But they are neither natural nor toxic and so seem unaffected by pollution or radiation. In fact, they seem to find it tasty. However, common insecticide melts them acid.
Rewards Granted
2 Karma
1,500¥
1,500¥
Character(s) interacted with
- Ted Walden (client)
- Knight Errant (guards)
Comments