Hollow Point Welcome

May 5, 2005

GM Conference with Tom:

Dick: You're probably expecting that you'll return to action at that transbot station where everyone else is gradually arriving. You are somewhat surprised, then, when Tom-R-IDG-2 is instead ushered to the briefing room.
Tom: How much do I remember from the mission?
Dick: MemoMax worked its magic, so you only lost the painful bit after you fell out of the transbot window. There really wasn't much more to your previous clone's existence after that. You could say that it was all downhill from there. You remember the briefing room and the events with startling clarity. You are therefore at something of a loss when the briefing room to which you are escorted by a pair of GREEN IntSec goons is a dark room with a stool in the center over which a god light shines down - leaving an area a few feet across as the only visible part of the room. The door closes behind you.
Tom clears his throat.
Dick: Hypersenses, right? There is an ULTRAVIOLET sitting behind the remnants of an office desk, polishing what looks like a simple laser pistol with a white barrel. He is watching you with a fairly bored expression on his face.
Tom: Anyone I'd recognize with my knowledge of Alpha Complex history? It's an 18.
Dick: Hm. Maybe...
Dick rolls in secret - 5.
Dick: You recognize him as Abraham-B-LCN-4, who is in charge of Confession Readi, an IntSec service firm that psychologically prepares traitors to confess their crimes to The Computer. Either he got a huge promotion in the last couple monthcycles, or he's impersonating a High Programmer. Two burly characters dressed as BLUE Troopers stand next to him, slugthrowers at the ready. Either they've changed the testing standards for Troopers, or these are GREEN goons masquerading as BLUEs.
Tom: I flip on the multicorder inconspicuously.
Dick: The goons raise their weapons, and Abraham speaks, his voice distorted mechanically. "I wouldn't do that, citizen." Are you touching the multicorder?
Tom: Um, no. "You're not Jacques-Y."
Abraham: "If you can see me, you can see the troopers standing next to me, too. There is no reason for you to do anything foolish. I'm here to help you and your teammates survive this mission."
Tom: I'm not entering the lit area. "Survival is not the primary mission objective."
Abraham: "Ever see a reactor melt down, Tom-R? Do you have any idea how that impacts a sector?"
Tom: "Is that a threat?"
Abraham: "Merciful Computer, no. The caboose's cargo is heavily protected by locked safes - to prevent both radiation from leaking out and unauthorized personnel from breaking in. Without the correct time-determined codes, there is no way to open the safes and therefore no way to repair the nuclear reactor. This code is magnetically transmitted by a small, red token."
Tom: "Does it look like a plasticred?"
Abraham: "As a matter of fact, yes. Why? Have you seen it?"
Tom: Well, that was a decidedly bad move on my part. "Yes. Donald-R had it, but on orders from The Computer, I took it from him."
Abraham: "What were your instructions concerning it?"
Tom: "Maybe you should ask The Computer yourself."
Abraham: "You're a member of IntSec. You know the resources at my disposal. You will tell me what you were going to do with that code chip, or I will show you the kind of drugs available to interrogators of BLUE...ULTRAVIOLET clearance."
Tom: I want to lie, but my Management skill is the suck. "Osama-B-LDN-6."
Abraham: "I see. Well, off you go, then. The Computer has arranged for your immediate insertion at the transbot station on the border of the IRQ Sector. I have a hunch that your team will wait for you there for at least a little while longer."
Dick: I'll be bringing you back into the action shortly.
Tom: For someone willing to risk exposure by talking to me, he didn't ask a lot of questions.
Dick: You told him everything he needed to know to achieve his goals.
Tom: Why do I get the feeling my corpse is about to be looted?
Dick: Because it is.

GM Conference with John:

Dick: When you come to, you are surrounded by INFRAREDs armed with crude weapons - pipes, chains, knives, and so forth. A single RED appears to be their leader. A docbot hums nearby, one of its syringes obviously recently emptied. The morphine appears to have been counteracted. Well, it's more like your body is numb, but you're really feeling hyper.
John: "Sorry I braked so late. I kind of had to deal with some Commie mutant sabotage."
Dick: The RED speaks. "Dude. You are utterly blasted. One scope of your coat, and you'd totally be smoking boots."
John (ooc): Dick, stop. You're scaring me.
Dick: The mob?
John (ooc): The jive-talking RED. It's like listening Martha Stewart hosting a cooking show in Ebonics. You're the Vice President, for Christ's sake.
Dick: I'm never allowed to have any fun around you, am I?
John: Is it safe to assume he's referring to my suicide vest?
Dick: Yes.
John: They haven't stripped it off and confiscated it with the rest of my equipment?
Dick: They haven't even touched you except to revive you.
John: "What can I say? I like clothes that can clear a room."
Dick: "Did you geek your entire team, plus the techs? That's so radioactive, dude."
John: "Nah. IntSec might be watching. I wrecked that docbot, though, and blew the door off the engine car."
Dick: "You blow, dude? We need people who know how to blow. You should hook up with us." You notice that a female INFRARED is practically hanging on his shoulder in a scene completely unfamiliar to you.
John: "Big Brother?"
Dick: "We haven't seen IntSec in a week, and last I saw her, she had a dainty plasticord collar for a puppet string. The Eye is dead, dude. We blast cams wherever we find them. IRQ is ours, now that you've brought us some humanitarian relief."
John: "Excuse me?"
Dick: "You 8-ball, dude?"
John: "My head hurts."
Dick: "The stims will do that, I hear. Maybe they didn't tell you about the relief package?"
John: "Ah, you mean the colloquial Hot Fun."
Dick: "No, man. The bangs and burners - not to mention the bugs, the chems, and the nukes. Which car are they on?"
John: "I don't know."
Dick: They heft their weapons meaningfully.
John: "Last two cars."
Dick: "We just checked. Nothing but Cold Fun and bunks."
John: "The technicians might have found a way to disconnect the cargo cars from the rest of the transbot."
Dick: "Then we'll welcome them to IRQ. Come with us, blow man."
John: "Please. Call me John-R."
Dick: "Another John-R. I'm John-R-KRY-3."
John: "John-R-SNO-1."
John-R-KRY: "Hear that? The blow man is prime."
John: "Is that good?"
John-R-KRY: "Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe you're clever enough not to get caught. Maybe you don't have the nerve to blow when you have to. Follow us."
John: "Is that such a good idea? If the techs find out about the relief, they'll have more than enough firepower to fend off a few INFRAREDs."
John-R-KRY: "You're funny, blow man. Maybe I should keep you drugged so you can make me laugh."
John: Seeing that I don't really have a choice, I guess I'm going to follow them, but I'll try to stay back so they provide cover from any attacks originating from the transbot rail.
Dick: I'll get back to you in a little bit.

Back at the Gaming Table with Condi and Donald:

Dick: You can see the transbot platform up ahead. A few hundred meters beyond it, you see the back of the stopped transbot. A dazed-looking John-R is standing with a RED and a small crowd of INFRAREDs.
Donald: "The old pessimist pulled it off."
Dick: Lisa-Y, Tim-O, Gordan-O, and the technicians from both sides start readying their weapons and taking up defensive positions.
Condi (singing tunelessly): "Is something wrong?"
Lisa-Y: "This is an anarchic sector. They could be traitors."
Donald: "They don't appear to be harming John-R."
Gordan-O: "Unless he's in league with them."
Tim-O: "Donald-R is right. This is a border transbot station. We'd face the same kind of crowd entering the FRA Sector."
Condi (singing tunelessly): "It's not like we can choose not to stop. The rest of the transbot lies in our path.
Dick: As you near the platform, you see Tom-R and Alberto-R emerge from a transtube near the platform. The group barely seems interested in them. They don't appear armed.
Donald: "It seems okay."
Dick: At that moment, a window on the opposite side of the transbot from the platform shatters as a hollow point slugthrower round causes Lisa-Y's head to explode in a burst of brains and blood.
Donald (ooc): Shit.
Condi (ooc): Didn't you see that one coming?
Dick: The RED and the INFRARED crowd run for cover deeper in the transbot station. John-R, Alberto-R, and Tom-R, what are you doing?
John: I take cover somewhere where I can see the transbot. I'm trying to see the source of the attack.
Dick: It's much too dark for that.
Tom: I'm going to get some cover and focus on documenting the transbot attack.
Alberto: I'm going to chase down the fleeing greeters. "That cargo is important. We need you to shut down the border defenses so we can get this transbot moving!"
Dick passes a note to Alberto: As you round a corner, one of the INFRAREDs misses braining you with a lead pipe by a slight stumble.
Alberto passes a note to Dick: Blasting him with my laser. Energy 12.
Dick passes a note to Alberto: You cut him in half.
Dick: After that, I need you to go to an isolation booth. Then I need to get George and Samuel caught up with you.

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