It Came from Behind

April 30, 2005

GM Conference with Samuel:

Dick: When you regain consciousness, you're tied up in a dark place. Your back is against something that feels like another person's back.
Samuel: Am I lying down, sitting, hanging from the ceiling by my feet, or what?
Dick: As tempting as hanging from the ceiling sounds, you're lying in rather cramped quarters with your legs curled up into a half fetal position. Your head still feels foggy from the docbot's drugs.
Samuel: I groan audibly.
Dick: The person tied up behind you shushes you. "They'll hear."
Samuel (whispering): "Who are you, and where are we?"
Dick: He whispers back. "Conrad-R. And I think we're in the caboose with the reactor parts - probably in a lead closet well above our security clearances."
Samuel: "How can you tell? Did you see?"
Conrad-R: "No. They drugged me the same as you. My radiation indicator was buzzing when I regained consciousness."
Samuel: Do I hear anything?
Dick: No.
Samuel: "I don't hear any buzzing."
Conrad-R: "I think its fuel cell went dead. Are you one of the Troubleshooters?"
Samuel: "Samuel-R - Power Services. Have you tested our bonds?"
Conrad-R: "Plasticord. I can't reach the knots."
Samuel: "There are two of us, now. We might be able to reach each other's."
Conrad-R: "Not much point, I'm afraid. The indicator is supposed to click in the presence of radiation. I can only guess that buzzing means deadly radiation. Even if we escape, we'll only die of radiation poisoning."
Samuel: "Fine. While I'm supposed to protect you at all costs from traitors, and even though your morale is clearly dangerously low, I'm in no mood to argue with you, right now. Untie my knots, and I'll find somewhere else to die of radiation poisoning." Life or death, so I'm willing to spend 5 Pervs on any Management roll you want to make.
Dick: No Pervs. 4, right?
Samuel: Yes.
Dick rolls in secret and ignores the result.
Dick: After a considerable struggle, Conrad-R manages to undo your bonds.
Samuel: What's left of my equipment?
Dick: You have your extra laser barrels, Bouncy Bubble Beverage, reflec, PDC, and truncheon.
Samuel: "Sure you don't want to try to escape?"
Conrad-R: "That's okay, thank you."
Samuel: I imagine PDCs are backlit like cell phones?
Dick: Yes.
Samuel: Is there room to stand up, or is it really as cramped as it sounds?
Dick: It's cramped less because the area is small than because it is full of other stuff. You can stand up.
Samuel: Doing so and using my PDC as an impromptu flashlight. Where are we?
Dick: You're in a heavily reinforced closet or crate about three meters on a side. It's packed with pallet after pallet of metal tubes marked with radiation warnings. You've never actually seen tacnuke cone rifle shells, but you're pretty sure that's what these are."
Samuel: Uh, and how many are there in here with us?
Dick: Let's see. Each shell occupies a space one meter long, one-third of a meter wide, and half a meter high. There is a one meter by one meter entry area where you are standing. 9 x 27 x 18 - 6 is...
Samuel: Holy shit! Thousands?!?
Dick: 4,368 tacnuke shells, to be exact - give or take a couple hundred. And keep your voice down. You wouldn't want the Frankensteined bots to hear you...
Samuel: Or the rest of the players.
Dick: Them, too.
Samuel: Okay, I want to examine one of these things and find out whether they...no, wait. I don't want to do that.
Dick: That tic more trouble than it's worth, Samuel? I'll give you Perversity points if you examine the tacnukes.
Samuel: Sabotaging a shower is fun. Overloading a nuke is likely to end this game much sooner than either of us wants.
Dick: Good point. It's hard to complete a mission after you've blown the tri-sector mission zone to atoms.
Samuel: Can I tell with minimal manipulation whether these things can be used as is?
Dick: No. Each appears to require the user to enter a launch code in order to arm the warhead.
Samuel: Good. So, even if I tampered with one, it wouldn't just mushroom cloud?
Dick: Do you want to examine one more closely to find out?
Samuel: No!
Dick: What now?
Samuel: Any way to open the door?
Dick: No. It doesn't appear to be designed to be opened from within.
Samuel: PDC getting a signal?
Dick: Not a chance.
Samuel: Any tools around?
Dick: Conrad-R still has his toolkit. Too bad you can't say the same thing about his skin, which is clearly suffering the effects of radiation exposure.
Samuel: Anything explosive in his kit?
Dick: No, but there are plenty of explosives in the room with you.
Samuel: You're just itching for me to tamper with the WMDs, aren't you?
Dick: Maybe...
Samuel: Merely being knocked out, tied up, and locked in a room full of these things probably requires at least BLUE clearance.
Dick: INDIGO, actually.
Samuel: Exactly. Tampering with nukes as a RED is pure suicide.
Dick: Are you saying that Conrad-R has the right idea, Mr. High Morale?
Samuel: I'm saying he might. What's the surveillance like in this room?
Dick rolls a die - 7.
Dick: You don't notice any obvious cameras, but given that the walls of the room are either VIOLET or INDIGO (it's difficult to tell in the dim light), they probably have nanocameras that float around like motes of dust in the air and document everything that happens, some of which are probably already in your lungs, making it child's play for IntSec to track you no matter where you may go.
Samuel: The amount of detail you just gave tells me I just horribly botched that check.
Dick: Not necessarily. You might have just missed it by a point or two, receiving a hint without any certainty.
Samuel: My Stealth is 4 and my Surveillance is 1, so I'm leaning toward my explanation.
Dick: Believe what you want, citizen. Don't complain during debriefing that I didn't warn you about the nanocameras, though.
Samuel: I'm going to need a couple minutes to think about what I want to do next. Come back to me.
Dick: Okay.

GM Conference with George and Alberto:
Alberto (ooc): What was that about?
Dick: Hmm?
Alberto (ooc): We could hear Samuel from here. Thousands of what?
Dick: I'm sorry, citizen. That information is not available at your security clearance.
George (ooc): I somehow doubt he was upset about finding thousands of plasticreds, thousands of Teela-O bobble heads, or thousands of new flavors of Hot Fun.
Dick: No, just one flavor of Hot Fun... Enough speculating on my conference with Samuel. George had just been shot by someone or something on top of the caboose.
George: Wait. I thought the reason we couldn't climb into the engine car through the window was that we were in a tunnel.
Dick: Actually, you were only in the tunnel for about a minute. You guys just assumed the tunnel was longer than it really was.
Alberto: No point crying over past assumptions. What is shooting at George-R?
Dick: It looks like that prototype jackobot you picked up in the transbot station.
Alberto: This is all George's fault, but I'm returning fire. It's not like there's any cover to be had. Energy is 12.
Dick: Roll.
Alberto rolls a 13.
Dick: The laser glances off a reflective part of its body.
George: I'm snafued, aren't I?
Dick: Yes.
George: I'm sure there's a way into the caboose, right?
Alberto: Yes - a security clearance ORANGE door.
Dick: Who's the GM here?
Alberto: Sorry. Do you want me to kiss your ring?
Dick gives Alberto the finger.
George: Is his statement accurate, Dick?
Dick: Yes.
George: Great. I'll yank open the door and enter the caboose.
Alberto (ooc): Right in front of the loyalty officer? I'm at a loss for words.
George (ooc): Don't get any bright ideas. I'm not going to be your Pedro.
Dick: The jackobot fires its laser at Alberto-R.
Dick rolls in secret - 1.
Dick: The beam would have sliced off your arm except for the reflec - a wound. George, you're in the caboose. There are three crates about three meters on a side at the center of car. One of them has been opened, revealing a lead box with a door. One crate is marked with a radiation symbol, a second with a biohazard symbol, and a third with the largest number of mysterious warning signs you have ever seen.
George: Which one has a visible door?
Dick: The one with a radiation symbol.
George: Of course. I'm going to run to the back of the caboose so we can flank the mad bot.
Dick: Noted. Alberto?
Alberto: Seeking shelter inside the caboose and already regretting it. I'll try to get some semblance of cover from one of the crates. Which one is closest?
Dick: The biohazard one.
George (ooc): Did you really have to ask?
Alberto (ooc): Just wanted to be sure. At least we're nice and quarantined here in the caboose if any stray gunplay bursts a vial of something, erm, vile.
Dick: Alberto, you hear a loud thud as something heavy falls off the roof and onto the front platform of the caboose.
George: I take a cover fire position on the other side of the germ crate.
Alberto: "Any idea why a bot might be wielding a laser, George-R?"
George: "I can hazard a guess."
Alberto: "Commie mutant sabotage?"
George: "Yep. Who do you think might be responsible?"
Alberto: "The equipment guy checked out all the bots, and John-R disappeared for a few minutes early in the mission."
George: "True, but any of the Power Services technicians could have sabotaged the bots at any time. They were closest to the engine car. Samuel-R and Conrad-R are both missing. Maybe the bot killed them, but maybe they're behind this sabotage."
Alberto: "I'll have to have a long talk with them, if they turn up again."
Dick: A metal foot kicks open the front door of the caboose.
George: Opening fire. "If we survive this, of course." Energy is 17.
Alberto (ooc): Holy crap, George. You're such a twink.
George (ooc): I'm a failed Vulture Warrior. That comes with some fringe benefits.
Dick: Roll it.
George rolls - 5.
George: That would be a margin of 12 for a boost of 4.
Dick: Alberto, you too.
Alberto rolls - 12.
Alberto: Margin of 0.
Dick: Alberto-R's laser knocks the weapon out of the jackobot's hand, where it clatters onto the caboose platform. George-R's laser hits the bot in the head, causing it to fall over backward and under the caboose with a loud crunch.
George: I examine the fallen laser. Can I tell whose it is?
Dick: Weapon Maint?
George: 10.
Dick rolls in secret - 15.
Dick: You can't tell. Alberto-R's laser appears to have marred any obvious evidence.
George: "Thank the Computer, that's over."
Alberto: "I'm not so sure." I run to the back of the caboose to confirm the kill.
Dick: It's too dark to tell whether the bot's remains are on the track, from this distance.
George: I wander toward the back of the caboose.
George passes a note to Dick: Holding my arm in front of the backward-pointing camera of the damaged pistol and firing the laser at point blank range into Alberto-R's head while his back is turned.
Alberto: Shit. I didn't just turn my back on George, did I?
Dick: Want to spend Perversity to reduce his chance of success?
Alberto: Hm. Let's think. Yes. 5.
George: 5 here, too.
Dick: Roll.
George rolls 8.
George: Margin of 9.
Alberto: Even after the reflec, that downs me.
George: I loot any credits he's carrying and push him off the transbot.
Dick: Perv point for leaving him to die instead of finishing him off when you had the chance.
Dick rolls in secret against a Tension level of 6 - 11.
George: Once that's done, I'll dump the laser immediately in front of the wheels of the transbot.
Dick: Just as you finish eliminating the evidence, you see the lights of an upcoming transbot station. You think the caboose might still have enough momentum to make it to the station.
George: Oops. Maybe I should have planned this a bit more carefully.

GM - Vice President Cheney
Alberto-R-GZS-1 (Alberto) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Condi-R-ICE-1 (Condi) - Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice
Donald-R-UMI-1 (Donald) - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
George-R-BSH-1 (George) - President George W. Bush
John-R-SNO-1 (John) - Secretary of Treasury John Snow
Samuel-R-BMN-1 (Samuel) - Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
Tom-R-IDG-1 (Tom) - Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge