Foreman's Fired
| Foreman's Fired | |||||||||
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| Part of Festering Infestation | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Black Lodge | |||||||||
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Babylon Zenith Carbon Skimmer Merc |
Garry Foreman Blood Spirits | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None. | Everything | ||||||||
Summary
Foreman dies.
Context
Garry Foreman's been a fiend to several runners, a target of a personal vendetta, but due to his unethical experiments he's been mostly untouchable and difficult to trace. Once evidence surfaced that he began going off the reservation, even for the Black Lodge's standards, a plan was hatched to systematically eliminate his connections and resources. Part of a much, much larger operation, runners were vetted down a pipeline to be the tools of execution at the end of a large logistics campaign.
Meet
The Seattle attack dog of the Lodge, Charon gets tasked with meeting the team in one of Loveland's abandoned properties since she has better rapport with most of the runners involved. She offers limited intelligence on Garry Foreman's last hideout that was confirmed in the North-American continent. They've traced him to be in there with a high likelihood, although divination is rarely foolproof. The team's not the most enthused about spotty intel, but Charon notes that they chose to have less intel to give the team the element of surprise. Further recon may have tipped Foreman off that he was about to have company, making their task infinitely harder.
The catch of the job will be that while they are absolutely fine with Foreman biting the dust, his research must be copied and the drives wiped to ensure that only the Lodge has access to it. The information within is too sensitive to be trusted to anyone else, and should anyone try to replicate it, the Lodge must remain a step ahead of such imitators with the original's work. While she's unhappy about delivering the bad news, Charon emphasizes that if the team returns without the data or if someone else gets their hands on it, they will be executed on sight. Their only chance to avoid such a fail condition is to leave now, which none of them do. They're in, for better or worse.
Infiltration
Fortunately, helicopter transportation is offered once gearing up is over. The work must be completed in the next few days, the sooner the better, and the team works fast to prepare for their flight into the PCC. Zenith contacts a risky individual, Krimelin and asks for his help in case one of their team gets exposed to HMHVV in this Infected-filled research facility. Krimelin offers to stop by with basic medical equipment, since he knows a thing or two about pathogen mitigation. Why, nobody should want to ask him. He's scary.
Near the coordinates, the team approaches in stealth and Babylon summons a local Spirit of Man. Unfortunately, due to her Spirit Whisperer trait, an unexpected individual shows up -- Pump King Jack. A bona fide Spirit of Man now, he doesn't seem too concerned about breaking his vow and tries to give Babylon a reassuring figurative pat on the back. He's asked to stay up here and sustain some spells, since he looks towards the entrance and says 'frag that' due to the rancid background count emanating from below.
As the team approaches, they spot not land mines, but ghouls buried in the sand that expose themselves with a slight movement. The sand protects them mostly from sunlight and they appear to get oxygen and nutrients from below ground; a vile protection system of infection and ankle biting; with the buried ghouls and cameras scanning the area, the team very carefully advances towards an entrance, disables its security and descends down a ladder, immediately setting up a ward and planting down duffel bags of gear. Chemical seal is activated and oxygen tanks begin ticking down in their capacity for breathable air.
Despite their advanced protection with spells like Improved Invisibility and Concealment, an integrated optical fiber magesight system spots the intruders magically and almost catches the entire team unaware with a foul spell. Alarms are triggered fast and most of the entire facility converges on them, ghouls with shotguns and security turret riggers included. Stuck between a materialized blood spirit that hemorrhages Zenith, a hallway full of buckshot rain keeping Zenith and Carbon back and a few angry turrets spewing lead, the team slips in a side room by the skin of their teeth and systematically dismantles the security forces as well as the blood spirit.
As they clear the facility to prevent them being snuck up on, they begin breaking or obscuring the magesight optics, while also discovering some signs of horrid experimentation. People attempting to get smuggled past the border from Aztlan had been promised delivery into the PCC and UCAS. Instead, they were taken here, turned into ghouls and grendels and kept in pens like animals. Dozens upon dozens of feral victims are mostly idle in a cage, which the team surrounds with proximity sensor explosives in case the cage is opened.
Additionally, they find three vats meant for more refined experiments. Cargo containers with FAB III nearby, these vats only have one occupant, two of them being empty. The empty ones have names in the system files like Project Geronimo and Project Cu Chulainn, but the one left behind is Project Pandora. A blonde, giant woman with human features aside from her size is unconscious in the vat, and while the files appear to hint towards some sort of genetic modification, they're not conclusive enough for anyone in the team, since they're not well versed in biotechnology jargon.
Deciding to leave this woman for later, they continue exploring and cause a flooding leak of biohazardous waste, finding uninfected captives that they begin rescuing posthaste. After that, they find an elaborate secret entrance to Foreman's room behind a heavy concrete slab, pulling it out to enter a mantrap and confront the fiendish owner of the facility.