A Voice Behind Me
| A Voice Behind Me | |||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||||
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ShadowHaven Alexandria Black Lodge | Atlantean Foundation | Guardians of Order | The Enemy | ||||||||
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Angra Mainyu Katherine Tyler Pulse Red Rain Shy |
Alex the Great Subverted Personnel |
Crystaline Entities Mind-Controlled Personnel |
The Harbinger Ensorcelled Personnel | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||||
| Alex the Great (recompiled into Alexandria's source code by Pulse) | One F12 permanently banished by Ahriman, another disrupted by Shy | The Harbinger (re-entombed beneath the ice and rock - for now...) | |||||||||
| Eight points of edge were burnt in total. Kate had A Terrible Fascination planted in her mind, gaining the attention of The Harbinger. | |||||||||||
Summary
In which the runners are hired to investigate a compromised Atlantean Foundation research facility in Antarctica, and end up stumbling upon the True History of the Earth.
Background
A long time ago there was a nation called Thera, which survived the Scourge of the Fourth World partially through their prodigious arcane might, partially because they had built for themselves a powerful and wide-reaching empire, and partially by constructing a series of underground vaults called kaers which helped protect their populations from the ravages of the Horrors. Eventually however the Fourth World came to an end, and Thera - sustained as it was by the power of magic - was lost to history, with its historical/cultural legacy spread throughout early human civilization. Thera is in fact the true name of what the denizens of the Fifth and Sixth Worlds know as Atlanis (see Earthdawn lore for more information).
In 2070 the Artifact Rush began with the discovery of the Piri Reis map - one of the notable features of which is an accurate rendition of the ice-free coastlines of Antarctica, drawn at a time when no one alive should have known what such coastlines looked like. This naturally sparked a great deal of speculation on the part of arcano-archaeologists, including one Dr. Paul van Ommen, who theorized that Antarctica is actually the true location of Atlantis (or at least a part of it). Dr. van Ommen's ideas were greeted by the scientific community with widespread derision, however the Atlantean Foundation was paying very close attention - his notion prompted them to build Karnak, a state-of-the-art research facility, in the Gamburtsev Mountain Range in centeral-Eastern Antarctica, directly on the site of a symbol marked on the Piri Reis map which the Foundation have previously encountered in the Mediterranean, Ukraine, and Oak Island, Nova Scotia.
The facility was completed by 2072, and no expense was spared in its construction - this included the development of an Artificial Intelligence that could serve as an archivist for the Foundation's vast stores of knowledge on the subject as well as any new discoveries. The resulting AI was called Alexandria, and soon gained true sapience due to the huge quantities of information she was given access to. Eventually, thanks to the development of new highly-advanced drills, the Foundation unearthed their greatest prize yet - a kaer, buried over a kilometer beneath the ice.
This discovery however prompted a swift response from the Foundation's sometimes-allies, the Guardians of Order - a mysterious race of crystalline spirits from an unknown deep metaplane. The Guardians remember the last Scourge, as well as the threat that The Enemy poses, and have been slowly trying to lead the Foundation on the path to wisdom so that they might rediscover their lost past to learn from the mistakes of the Theran Empire. However, by unsealing the kaer they exposed themselves to the influence of the malevolent being trapped inside - a Horror, called The Harbinger, which compromised the vault long ago and became stuck there after the ambient mana levels dropped, weakening it to the point it was unable to return to the rest of its kind. The Harbinger is still possessed of an unfathomable intellect and powerful mental manipulation methods however, and it eventually managed to subvert the will of the lead scientist, one Dr. Jordan Weissman, with the goal of getting him to open the vault.
Thus, the Guardians struck in force to prevent this outcome, attacking Karnak and using their own abilities to either mind control or crystalize most of the research and security staff. Alexandria, sensing that something was very wrong, transmitted herself to a geo-stationary satellite with the intent of warning the rest of the Atlantean Foundation of what happened - however the signal was cut off part-way through the transfer, resulting in her becoming fragmented, with the satellite subsequently falling into a decaying orbit and crash landing in Antarctica. The partial transmission was however picked up by a remote Black Lodge listening post, prompting Knife to investigate and inform Mr. Herenight of the situation. The Black Lodge, having had their own less-than-amicable encounters with the crystalline entities and wanting to keep knowledge of the Fourth World from falling into the wrong hands (i.e. any other than their own), decides to send in a team to investigate as soon as possible.
The Meet
Each of the runners are contacted by their fixers and informed that they have a very dangerous, but very well-paying, job for them - they are told that they should put their affairs in order and make contingency plans in the event that they do not return, then given a set of coordinates which lead to the middle of Lake Washington. By their own means, the runners arrive at the shore of the lake, where a small dock and a rowboat waits - in the distance, they can glimpse a Trafalgar 111 yacht on the water. Getting into the rowboat, they make their way out to the larger craft.
On the deck of the yacht waiting for the group is Mr. Herenight, with a pair of holo-conference drones nearby - one projects an image of Knife, while the other shows Ezekyle Burton (who remains silent throughout the meeting, his very presence a mystery). The vampire gets right to business, telling the team he needs them to travel to Antarctica to investigate a signal that came from a secret facility in the Gamburtsev Mountain Range. He says that he has already sent a pair of operatives (Swerve and Zenith) to Icetown and Shackleton respectively, where they are accessing transmitters in those locations in order to triangulate the source; with their aid, his "secretary" (he looks to Knife with a smug look at this) has managed to determine that the source of the transmission is a now-crashed satellite about 200km from the facility. He needs them to retrieve the satellite and any data inside, which should help them to get past the automated defenses and breach the perimeter.
At this point Knife speaks up, displaying an image of an enormous stone lighthouse as well as the face of an older human man - he explains that the lighthouse is the persona of Alexandria, the DI tasked with running the facility, as well as Dr. Weissman, the head researcher. These are to be the team's primary targets, along with any physical and digital information they are able to recover from Karnak. Pulse intuits that Knife is attempting to imply via the use of the term "digital intelligence" that Alexandria is non-sapient, however he remains worried about the prospect.
Ahriman and Kate take the lead on questioning, but Mr. Herenight remains tight-lipped about details - he tells them he's willing to pay them six figures plus cover their travel expenses, and that he expects them to do their jobs and not ask questions he doesn't wish to answer. He does however reveal the identity of the spirits which compromised the facility, as well as provides satellite footage of the site, though it is of middling quality due to a number of intentional redactions. Ahriman is privately concerned about her own loyalties to the Atlantean Foundation, but refrains from expressing that in front of their employer. When Kate asks to what lengths they should go to secure the facility and keep the threat from spreading, Herenight tells them to blow up the on-site nuclear reactor and destroy the entire base if they have to.
The Plan
While still on the boat, Pulse decides to take the initiative and do some hacking just to stunt on Knife with his Power Glove (a lower cyberarm holding a Fairlight Paladin). Examining the satellite footage, he begins to search for a better source, ending up on the Horizon global grid and the emporium showcasing photographs from their Eagle Eye satellite, the most powerful telescope in orbit which takes high-rez photos of both the Earth and outer space - the corporation makes a selection of them available the benefit those with a Horizon data subscription. Pulse, who lacks such a subscription, decides that he should have access anyway, so he slips inside the destination host to look for the secret stuff that they don't make available to the public. With the might of the Power Glove and Plucky Decker Power (edge), he manages to spot the hidden rating 10 host and gain access, staying hidden from the eyes of the security spider as he hops from digital iceberg to iceberg, finally finding one which holds information on central Antarctica. He is able to extract unredacted photos of the valley in the Gamburtsev Mountain Range where Karnak is located before finally being detected, snatching the photographs and leaving a "You've Been Pulse'd" signature before quickly jacking out.
Using the stolen spy satellite photos, Pulse and Red Rain are able to map out a proper approach route to Karnak through the mountains, as well as identify SAM sites, missile launchers, laser turrets and an extensive mine field guarding the perimeter. The group speculate about just what the Atlantean Foundation is guarding that would necessitate this level of security, but their employer remains tight-lipped - he does however make extensive resources available to them, offering to set up supply caches on the ice at locations of their choosing and fund whatever expenses they need in order to ensure success. Herenight gives the team 12 hours to get their affairs in order, giving them a number to contact him at and a set of coordinates for a cargo ship off the Antarctic coast to rendezvous at for their final briefing before setting out.
Ahriman contacts her fellows in the Atlantean Foundation for more information on Karnak and the entities that have compromised it, managing to parlay her reputation within the organization into getting access to some redacted files on the site (including concept designs and early stage blueprints), as well as information on the Guardians of Order, the implacable and inscrutable crystalline spirits who they have had dealings with before (sometimes as allies, sometimes as enemies). In particular, she learns that possess potent mind control abilities, and that the crystalline state they induce can be reversed by a Foundation-designed ritual.
Kate spends her time winterizing her gear and acquiring proper (ant)arctic armor, as well as running through simsense training for cold conditions - she also puts together survival kits and guides on polar travel (sourced from other antarctic explorers on the Matrix) the rest of the crew. Meanwhile, Pulse reviews everything he can regarding cybercombat with artificial intelligences, in between putting together an AR program to help guide their pilot through the mountain passes identified by the hacked satellite footage.
Red Rain requests and is provided with a contact who can outfit her VTOL with a layer of FAB II between the armor panels. Herenight gives her the name of a UCAS military supply officer that he has under his thumb, as well as codes to fly which grant her temporary access to Fort Lewis airspace and a "no questions asked, no payment required" deal as part of payment for her services. She hopes this will provide some protection against attacks by hostile spirits.
Shy also reviews her polar survival training and gets her gear winterized, as well as acquires a set of critter armor with internal heating for her Fenrir wolf Archaeon (who she plans to bring on the job). Since her unit, N-51 finds themselves in dire straits, she also makes a deal with the devil by contacting Lt.Cmdr Yennefer Kerrigan and offering the services of the black ops unit to the UCAS government in exchange for a big favor - access to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station for the team as a fallback position. Kerrigan agrees to pull some strings with some contacts of hers, and Shy manages to convince Commander to take the deal to ensure that the unit has a future, securing the group a safe point on the ice (they also make sure to have Herenight plant a supply cache halfway between the south pole and the mountains).
Finally, the group also make preparations for if they do not return: Ahriman tempts fate by contacting her parents and saying that she will come home to visit soon; Kate writes a series of letters to family and friends to be delivered in the event of her death; Pulse sets up a dead-man's switch to transfer all of his Matrix and financial assets to his sister Tess; Red Rain likewise calls her folks back in Asamando "just to talk"; Shy, having recently learned that her mother survived the Neo Revolution, reaches out to make contact with her.
At last, the group gather in Red Rain's aircraft and fly south at top speed, rendezvousing with their employer on a cargo ship sitting off-shore of the east coast of Antarctica for their final briefing. The forward team have successfully triangulated the location of the crashed satellite, which they are to attempt to retrieve (both to contain information on the situation and to acquire useful intelligence) before making their way to the base proper. Due to heavy local interference, it is unlikely they will be able to contact Herenight for more information once they arrive - past the mountains, they will be on their own.
The Crashed Satellite
The journey across the ice is surprisingly tranquil - the path takes them south from the penguin-spotted across Dronning Maud Land and the east Antarctic flats towards the Gamburtsev Mountain Range. The purloined satellite photos and the Black Lodge's intel allows the group to identify several corporate black sites, listening posts and radar stations which they are able to avoid thanks to Red Rain's piloting skills and Pulse's electronic counter-warfare jamming their signals. While most of the mountains are subglacial, the Awakening has caused the peaks to jut above the ice like rows of jagged basalt teeth, creating a ringed valley that encircles the glacier upon which Karnak sits; the only safe approach is through a canyon lined with point-defense systems.
About 100km to the northeast of the mountains lies the satellite crash site, which sits atop a crest of ice that Red Rain sets down about a kilometer away from - the group will have to walk the rest of the way. While the rigger stays with the VTOL, Kate and Shy guide Ahriman and Pulse along the ice fields, with Archaeon in tow - thanks to their training they manage to avoid injuring themselves or falling into snow-covered crevices, though the nerds soon find themselves quite exhausted by the arduous trek and the climb to reach the crashed satellite. En-route, they find a black rock which Ahriman identifies as elichium, a mana-sensative crystal which ordinarily appears as a light blue quartz-like formation; this specimen however is brittle, as if its internal structure has collapsed, and crumbles into a black powder at the lightest touch.
Soon enough however they arrive, and Archaeon immediately raises his heckles at some unseen disturbance; Shy attempts to calm him, but his barking provides just enough warning to portend the arrival of the first of the Guardians, which manifests utterly silently just behind them. The warning is all they need however - the street sams seize the initiative and spring into action. Kate draws her claymore, sheering away a portion of the crystal spirit's form, while Shy manages to put three APDS rounds right into its core; the combined attacks create a terrible keening sound that echoes across the ice as the spirit is disrupted, though a fragment of crystal is ejected and lands somewhere to the south.
With the immediate threat dispersed, Pulse wades into the upturned ice and snow to locate a jackpoint in the twisted metal wreckage of the crashed satellite; he manages to find the central processing unit encased in a burned and blackened shell of hardened material, plugging in his deck and hacking up some access. Inside the device he manages to locate another persona, hiding amidst the burning wreckage - it appears to be that of a blue-haired and bespectacled woman who intermittently glitches and freezes up, which Pulse recognizes as a fragmented artificial intelligence. He tentatively extends a handshake protocol and makes friendly contact with the AI, which calls itself Alexandria; as the satellite CPU is rapidly degrading and losing its ability to support her, Pulse (somewhat reluctantly) allows her access to his deck.
Having recovered the data, the group make their way back towards the VTOL, though Ahriman insists on making a detour to locate the crystal that was ejected from the spirit - thankfully they are able to do so via astral tracking as it creates something of a mana void. Noticing similarities to the elichium crystal that they previously located, Ahriman examines the structure and intuits that it is something analogous to the spirit's formula. Something about the way Ahriman discribes its astral presence tickles Kate's brain meats, and she recalls previous Forbidden Knowledge she has encountered on the horrors that dwell in the deep metaplanes; this spooks the group enough that Ahriman elects to banish the spirit and shatter the formula to ensure that it cannot return to the material plane.
While Pulse converses with Alexandria and starts to work on gaining her trust, the rest of the group debate their next course of action. They elect to journey to the supply cache in order to refuel and acquire extra food, just in case they end up crashing or otherwise unable to fly back; Shy also leaves Archeon to guard it so that he doesn't get hurt by the Guardians, however soon after they leave the Fenrir wolf hears the call of a nearby pack of Antarctic wolves and breaks loose of his chains, dashing away across the snow drifts.
Across the Mountains
On the journey towards the mountains, Alexandria makes an accord (sealed with high-fives) with Pulse, who convinces her to trust him (and by extension the rest of the team) when he says that they are there to help the Atlantean Foundation and rescue any survivors of whatever happened. The AI makes use of Red Rain's trid projector and speakers to converse with the rest of the group, explaining what she knows of the situation on the ground - a few weeks ago, she noticed people starting to act strangely, and eventually they began restricting her access to research files on something called Project Antikythera (which she is currently unable to remember the details of). When the breech occurred she noticed the alarms being triggered and, as per the emergency protocol, began to upload herself to an orbiting satellite, however the process was cut off part-way through, resulting in her fragmentation and memory loss; she expresses guilt over leaving her friends behind, and worry that some part of herself may also be left in the host without her personality core. She is however able to provide the group with a floor plan of the facility as well as information on the perimeter defense systems.
Assessing their route through the pass, the group plan for the eventuality of a hasty escape, identifying a prime route that cuts right through the mountains but is made impassable by the presence of a SAM site. Kate and Shy volunteer to make the trek on foot through the pass to disable it and provide them with a means of emergency egress; thanks to Alexandria's intel, the two are able to avoid the sensors en-route and approach from a blind spot, rigging the site with explosives that they can trigger if needed. While making their way back they notice another of the Guardians patrolling the pass, so Shy decides to take aim and eliminate it from afar - thankfully her aim proves to be true, so she manages to bullseye burst the core and disrupt it, sending out another of the high-pitched keening noises which echoes through the mountains.
The flight through the pass is a perilous one - Red Rain is forced to stay low to avoid radar sensors, to the point of brushing against the snow drifts and weaving between foothills. In her rigger cocoon the ghoul's crackly voice rings out on the sensors as she sings along to pop tunes to center herself, the VTOL screaming along at high speeds past missile silos and laser turrets. Thankfully the path plotted out during their legwork proves to be a good one, and the craft manages to make it to the other side of the mountains without drawing the attention of Karnak's remaining defenders (or the Guardians, though they know something is amiss since their disrupted scouts have failed to report back).
On the other side of the mountains the group take note of the aurora in the sky and the accompanying heavy interference on their comms, forcing Pulse (and Alexandria, who uses her processing power to enhance the power glove's capabilities) to compensate with directional signal filters so that the group are able to remain in communication with eachother, if not the outside world. The ringing mountains and the ethereal glow in the sky create a somewhat unearthly feeling to the scene, as if they've stepped across the threshold of another world.
A Fortress of Snow
Landing the VTOL in the shadow of one of the jagged mountain peaks, the group (minus Red Rain, who elects to stay with the VTOL and be available to provide emergency air support once the various missile silos are disabled) exits the craft and begins to make their way across the icy plains towards the glacier. Alexandria warns them that there are cameras and turrets wired together in a network underneath the snow to a series of junction boxes around the perimeter - while she doesn't have their exact position, she does know the placement was algorithmically generated for optimal coverage and can calculate a map once they have located several of them.
Kate (carrying Pulse) and Shy (carrying Ahriman) carefully make their way across the icy planes, with Shy's traceless walk allowing them to safely locate the mines without detonating them; once they have found some, Pulse and Alexandria manage to map out the location of the others and pin AR markers on the HUDs of the street sams. They also locate and approach one of the junction boxes (slow enough to not trigger the motion sensors) so that Pulse is able to plug into it - inside the device he finds an eye of Horus-like IC which he is forced to data spike when it spots him looking for the triggers of the anti-air defenses (which he proceeds to shut down and reformat).
After analyzing the code left behind Alexandria warns him that it resembles her own - putting their heads together, they determine that the fragmented remains of her code have likely recompiled into another AI, one lacking her ethics and morality protocols as well as her metasapient personality core. From the eclectic code structure, Pulse intuits that it is likely to be xenosapient; since it is likely alerted to something amiss due to the destruction of the IC, Pulse sets his smoke and mirrors to maximum and runs as silently as he can. On their approach to the base, the team take note of the crystalline edifice which seems to be growing out of the ice about a mile from Karnak - it resembles a sort of fractal tree, and seems to be channeling great magical energies by drawing power from the aurora above. Red Rain keeps a wary eye (via her exceptional sensor array) on the tower, electing to stay hidden rather than attempt to approach.
Approaching the walls of the facility, Ahriman notices another of the Guardians watching from the astral plane near an obelisk-like monument that sits at the front gates; unfortunately she is unable to determine its field of view due to its lack of eyes, so she attempts to banish it only to nearly knock herself out from magical backlash. The spirit begins to investigate for the source of the disturbance, providing a window for Kate and Shy to sneak towards the walls and grapple over them. With her thermographic vision Kate notices heat signatures inside one of the barracks buildings, but the group elect not to investigate, since they don't know whether they've been compromised by the Guardians mind control. Instead they hide in one of the outbuildings until the spirit passes by, then make for the main building - a glass-roofed pyramid.
Forcing their way inside while managing to disable the alarm system, Pulse locates a jackpoint and slides into the formidable host while the rest of the group keep watch. Inside the host he finds a burning library which echos with manic screams in the distance and is patrolled by more of the strangely-distorted eyes of Horus IC. Seeing the telltale signs of munged code, Pulse stays quiet while searching for the remains of the employee logs, guided by Alexandria's knowledge of the architecture. He notices one of the former spiders, seemingly link-locked and idle, with the code from his persona having been munged upon such that he appears partially crystalized and unresponsive to stimuli. Locating his quarry, he is able to decrypt and copy the file before making a speedy escape.
Now equipped with RFID tags that identify them as members of staff and faceless devices which should be enough to fool the cameras, the party make their way through the facility as quietly as possible. They notice signs of battle, including spent rounds, bullet holes and laser burns, as well as the crystalized forms of Atlantean Foundation personal dotting the hallways; thankfully they manage to be stealthy enough to avoid notice from the remaining personal, most of whom have been subverted by the Guardians mind control abilities. Meanwhile in the host, the maddened xenosapient which pieced itself back together from Alexandria's fragmented code - calling itself Alex the Great - searches for signs of the intruders.
Signs of Life
After some searching, the party arrive at a security station only to find it occupied by a guard and a trio of scientists - Kate ends up tanking a laser shotgun blast to the chest, but once each party realizes that the others have not been subverted by the Guardians they come to an uneasy truce. Ahriman steps up and identifies herself as an employee of the Foundation, managing to open a dialogue with the paranoid and secretive scientists - the subject of what exactly it is they were researching comes up, and one Dr. Clark lets slip mention of something called 'Project Antikythera'. Prompted with this information, Alexandria is able to direct Pulse to a series of files that have been hidden away inside a great brass vault in the basement of the host; when the scientists learn that the team have recovered the AI, they become somewhat more open to talking.
The conversation reveals that the scientists have been primarily working on advanced ice drilling methods and studying the background mana inside core samples recovered from deep beneath the Antarctic surface. They reveal that they are in the possession of the Piri Reis map, and how the base was built on the spot identified by one of the symbols which they believe corresponds to the location of Atlantean colonies. Clark says that the project lead, Dr. Weissman, has been hard at work for weeks on a discovery which he claimed will "change our understanding of history", and that they have dug a borehole over a kilometer into the ice to uncover something of great importance, but that their team is unaware of its nature.
Searching for answers, Pulse sneaks towards the file directory identified by Alexandria while managing to stay under the nose of Alex the Great, whose manic, static-y voice echoes throughout the host. Beneath the burning digital library he manages to find an enormous bronze vault door; as cracking into the encryption would alert the mad AI, he decides to make plans for the confrontation beforehand by speaking to Alexandria about her code structure and running the numbers on theoretical recombination of her missing fragments in order to find weaknesses to exploit. While searching through the basement, he also finds a file detailing the protocols the Atlantean Foundation programmed into Alexandria when she was created, which seems to have been intentionally hidden from her - he makes a note of its location to come back for it later. He is also able to find a processing core which was formally a fragment of the AI, and manages to reincorporate it into her; this has the duel effect of enhancing Alexandria's capacities and reducing those of Alex the Great, however it does alert the xenosapient to his presence so he quickly jacks out.
Deciding to find out for themselves what Weissman was working on, the team leave the security guard to watch over the scientists and give them a microtransciever frequency to listen to so that Red Rain can extract them as soon as its safe to do so. Outside, the pilot listens to music and enjoys being inside a heated VTOL instead of out in the cold while keeping a wary eye out for the Guardians. Unfortunately for her one of their scouts manages to spot the craft hidden in the snow, so the rigger boots up the engines and takes evasive action, attempting to keep her distance.
Beneath the Ice
Sneaking towards the basement, the team are able to successfully avoid detection by the mind-controlled minions of the Guardians as well as the drones subverted by Alex the Great. Pulse directly connects to a cargo elevator and brings them down to the lowest sub-level, where the drilling was taking place. There they find the borehole into the ice, with the crystalized Atlantian Foundation personnel surrounding it - however the normally-white crystal has turned the same black colour as the elichium the team found earlier, with the internal structures apparently collapsed. Deep, deep down in the borehole, shown on static-y monitors, they see an enormous vault door.
As they are contemplating the discovery, a pair of Guardians materialize behind them to cut off their retreat. While Kate and Shy leap into action, Ahriman and Pulse take cover - Ahriman focuses on protecting the group from magical assault, while Pulse finds a jackpoint and in order to assault the xenosapient so that Red Rain can bring in air support and an evacuation option. Kate is nearly mind-controlled and Shy comes within a hair's breadth of being crystalized, but the street sams are able to hold their own against the spirits - for the moment at least.
Inside the host, Pulse engages in cybercombat with Alex the Great - having been trained by NeoNET to combat AIs, and having spent time studying Alexandria's code structure, he is able to identify weaknesses in the cobbled-together fragments and data spike the connections holding them together. The AI puts up a good fight, but the plucky decker's data spikes open a hole in his defenses and create an opening for him to insert Alexandria's personality core, allowing her to overwright her evil twin and subsume the code fragments, deactivating the base's defenses.
Seeing the fight is turning against them, Kate opts to call for parlay with the Guardians, managing to open up a dialogue by revealing her knowledge of the Fourth World and what the kear is. She tells the spirits that they means them no harm and were simply sent to investigate the facility going dark, and convinces them to take the group to their leader. Outside, Red Rain's chase sequence abruptly ceases when the scout that has been attempting to subdue her receives a mental message to break off and allow the VTOL to approach Karnak.
To the Tower
Without the automated defenses to worry about, Red Rain lands in the facility courtyard. The group enters the craft and begin flying towards the crystalline tower, guided by the Guardians who signal to their comrades not to attack them. The rigger elects to stay outside with her missile launchers primed and ready while the rest of the team climbs the tower (Ahriman and Shy get painful headaches from the powerful background count that resonates throughout the structure) to meet with the Guardians leader.
At the top of the spire the enormous great form crystalline entity awaits, which the team can immediately feel probing their mind with its mind reading abilities. None of them are able to resist this, but all manage to keep composed and not project hostile intent (Ahriman admits that she would attempt to banish it if she could, but as that option is precluded negotiation for the lives of her fellow Foundation personal takes precedence), so they are allowed to approach and explain themselves. Standing before the leader is the crystalized form of Dr. Weissman.
The party proceed to explain themselves to the crystalline entity, who picks up from its mental probing that they have been sent by the Black Lodge - it calls their employers "short-sighted fools" and says that the secrets of the kaer are too dangerous for the Lodge, or the Foundation, to know. Each member of the group proceeds to state their case, telling the Guardians that even if they don't make it back more people will come, and that they may destroy the base with such force that the vault is compromised.
The leader of the Guardians argues that metahumanity as a whole are too weak-willed to fight the Enemy, and that they will inevitably fall to its influence. The group respond with impassioned pleas that metahumans are stronger than the spirits believe, and that they are stronger working together instead of against one-another as the Enemy would want. While the Guardians can force their will upon the small group, they would be overwhelmed if metahumanity brought their full force to bare against them, and they know it. Thus, cooperation is the most logical solution.
The group say that they are willing to help contain the threat, but the Foundation personal deserve to be freed and return home. In return, they will do everything they can to bury the vault and return false information to the Lodge, as well as explain to the Foundation that they can never return to Karnak. Perhaps their efforts will only last for a few years, but this is a mere blip on the Guardians timescale, and if they fail then the spirits can return in force to contain the threat however they see fit. Working together, they manage to successfully argue their case.
Containment
The Guardians leader agrees to the party's proposal, as it presents the least risk to its forces and the greatest likelihood that metahumanity will not send more people to investigate the base. It says that it will remove the offending knowledge from Dr. Weissman's mind, and that it expects the group to do likewise with the digital entity who they cannot directly touch. The parties go back and forth on potential long-term solutions, but in the end agree to place an artificial intelligence in charge of containment with a contingency measure that would allow the base to be destroyed if it is ever compromised again.
Leaving the tower, they return to Karnak where Pulse reunites with Alexandria and explains the situation - she says she is willing to stay if it means the safety of her friends, but as he does not wish to deny her freedom he shows her the directives that the Foundation programmed into her. This rocks her sense of loyalty to them, but she still wishes to make sure everyone survives regardless. Since her code base is still unstable however he needs to perform some digital brain surgery to re-integrate the fragmented information; in the process he removes the AF directives, and finds the opportunity to duplicate her personality core to create a new one which may some day evolve into a true AI in its own right. The process is a success, resulting in a stable Alexandria and a new nascent digital entity which can be placed in charge of the facility's defenses.
Meanwhile, in meatspace, Kate and Shy plant several bombs at strategic points around the reactor and hard-wire them into the facility so that they can be triggered if there is any indication that the base is compromised. They then go to sabotage the drill and destroy the bore-hole, collapsing the machinery into it along with several tons of rock and ice, burying the kaer once more; however before they do so, Kate looks deep down into the abyss and feels something staring back at her, placing the seed of A Terrible Fascination in her mind...
Ahriman gathers up the remaining Atlantean Foundation personal, assuring them that the threat is at an end, and the Guardians follow through on their agreement to release their mind-slaves from their control. It takes several trips ferrying them to the safety of the supply cache in Red Rain's VTOL, but eventually both the personal and the crystalized statues are rescued.
Aftermath
With Karnak locked down, Alexandria freed, and a tenuous truce with the Guardians of Order secured, the party considers their mission a success. They return to the supply cache to find Archaeon has slipped free of his chain and run off with a pack of Antarctic wolves, but Shy manages to track him down (though he may have introduced Fenrir wolf DNA into the Antarctic wolf bloodline, which is probably fine). With the Foundation personal in tow, they head to the South Pole base and from there make their way back to civilization, but not before meeting up with Herenight on the cargo ship for a debriefing.
Having put together a convincing facsimile of Alexandria's code, Pulse hands the simulacrum over to Knife - he knows that the deception will be quickly discovered, but it is enough to convince the tech-illiterate Herenight that they accomplished their goal. Along with this he hands over fragmented and redacted research files which he claims were munged by Alex the Great and virtually unrecoverable. There is however enough information present to confirm the Lodge's suspicions about the object of the Foundation's research, which satisfies the demand for intel. Herenight is pleased that they were able to reach an accord with the Guardians (calling them "stubborn creatures") and that the Foundation will not be returning to Antarctica any time soon. He gives the group their promised payment, then dismisses them coolly - the group leaves without a fuss, just glad to be getting out of Antarctica alive.
En-route back to civilization, they make a stop-over in the CAS to visit the Atlantean Foundation HQ in Atlanta. There Ahriman explains everything to her superiors, impressing upon them how close this was to a complete disaster and the importance of never attempting to reclaim Karnak. This meets with obvious resistance, as a great deal of time and money was spent on the endeavor and the Foundation believes that they are closer than ever to their goal of finding Atlantis, but the recovered researchers (once they are de-crystalized by the Foundation's rituals) as well as Alexandria back up the group's claims.
While they are unsure of if the Foundation will continue to adhere to the terms of their bargain with the Guardians in the future, for now at least they seem convinced to do the wise thing and stay away - helped by the massive horde of research data which was recovered and given to them in order to satisfy their curiosity. Only time will tell whether the fragile truce will hold, and if the secrets of the kaer will remain burred.
Rewards
REWARDS for "A Voice Behind Me" (x3.5 duration modifier = 350 RVP):
500,000 nuyen (250 RVP)
50 karma (50 RVP)
100 CDP ( 49 RVP)
1 street cred (1 RVP)
+5 Atlantean Foundation reputation
+5 Black Lodge reputation
Optional Contact: Mr. Herenight (C7/L1 Black Lodge Member) for 7 RVP or 14 CDP
Optional Contact: Alexandria (C8/L4 Artificial Intelligence) for 11 RVP or 22 CDP
Optional Gear Reward: Cyberware/vehicles/magical paraphernalia (up to availability 28)
Optional Quality: History Is Not As Certain As We Thought (must take if you read the research data, with a rank in The Fourth World)
For Ahriman:
+10 Atlantean Foundation reputation (in addition to the above)
Optional Gear Reward: AF Arcano-archaeology Suit (Armadillo Armor w/ mods)
Optional Quality: Corporate Loyalist (Atlantean Foundation)
Delta Clinic Access (costs 15 RVP - from the Atlantean Foundation)
For Kate:
One rank of A Terrible Fascination (w/ The Attention of a Terror - "The Harbinger")
Optional Quality: Magic Resistance @ chargen price
For Pulse:
-10 Black Lodge reputation (Knife learns of duplicity, vows revenge)
Optional Quality: Codeslinger (Hack on the Fly) + Spike Resistance @ chargen price
Can take Alexandria at loyalty 6
For Red Rain:
F12 FAB II lining in VTOL
Optional Quality: Speed Demon + Subtle Pilot @ chargen price
Delta Clinic Access (costs 15 RVP - from the Black Lodge)
For Shy:
N51 obligated to work as black ops for the CIA to pay back favors
Optional Quality: High Pain Tolerance @ chargen price
Can buy off Dry Addict @ chargen price
Delta Clinic Access (costs 15 RVP - from the UCAS government)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Ahriman: Talk about earning your paycheck. I can't go back, not yet, but being able to become a wedge between "those people" and the Foundation was a fine opportunity to seize. Trying to banish things like that, the hell was I thinking? My body was ripping itself in half just from trying to channel that much mana. Without those others there, I wouldn't have made it out alive. Being able to provide some insider perspective, however... I think that Kate woman and the markswoman appreciated it. The hacker? Suspicious, entitled and typical Matrix jockey. He was demanding a lot and not offering much in return. I'm not surprised he was permanently left with a sour look, like his rations were nothing but lemons. I'm not fond of how cagey he was overall, but that's a necessary sacrifice to make -- ultimately lives were saved. I'm willing to overlook that, given that we got things resolved. And that pit -- I heard something and knew that turning away was the smarter option. Maybe the other woman should've heeded the same wisdom.