Week Fourteen

Saturday May 13th, 2043, 1400 hours

As the session began, Rook, Drake, Derek, and Bug were all driving into Vitae Industries in a delivery van, wearing delivery uniforms; Baal and Alex had remained behind at the Fusama warehouse (Baal to run Vitae while the team was inside, and Alex to keep a cautious eye on Baal).

The team made it through the gate, into warehouse 7, and down one of the freight elevators to sublevel 2b, all under Baal's remote supervision and aid. When the elevator doors opened, there were 2 techs and 1 guard in the room, in addition to all the clone tanks (about a dozen). The team quickly dispatched the three VI employees (though the guard did manage to get off three gyroc rounds)- once Baal confirmed that all was clear and no alarms had been sounded, they found clone tank #ak423885, disconnected it, and wheeled it into the elevator.

As the elevator made its way back to the ground floor, Baal made a single transmission to the team: "Oh, sh...". Once at the top, the elevator doors didn't open, and the PCs could detect the faint hiss of gas entering. Those who had gas masks (all but Drake, who used breath control) put them on, and Rook bypassed the door controls to open the doors. Derek, Rook, and Bug laid down on the floor of the elevator, to make it seem as though they had been rendered unconscious/dead; Drake stood her ground.

Once the doors opened, the team could see three guards- one, unarmed and unarmored, standing out in the open, and two, very much armed and armored, taking cover behind the van. The guard in the open ordered Drake to throw down her weapons and exit the elevator, to which she replied by firing her tangler dead center at him.

Unfortunately, that guard turned out to be a hologram and the tangler round passed harmlessly through him. The other guards then ordered two attack "dogs" into the elevator. These were both quickly killed by the team. One of the dogs had been caught in the door, by its neck, and Rook and Derek each took careful aim through the space in the door and fired at the guards crouched behind the van. Both guards were killed! Bug smashed the dog's head which was caught in the door and Drake, with the rest of the team covering her, ran to the van and backed it up to the elevator. The team got the clone tank loaded and sped towards the warehouse doors.

Derek blew a hole big enough in the closed doors so that Rook could drive the van through, and the team attempted to escape. A humvee took up the chase just outside the warehouse, but was quickly destroyed by concentrated gyroc fire. Rook drove the van right through both perimeter fences and out to the street, while large guns mounted on the compound towers fired all the while. The van was heavily damaged, but the team did manage to get away.

Knowing that they had to somehow switch vehicles, the team pulled into a furniture store truck lot and quickly transferred the clone tank into a delivery truck. While Drake paid two nearby workers to drive the damaged truck around and away, Rook went inside the store to get the keys to the van. He attempted to simply "rent" the van, but the young C-1 girl at the counter, horrified at the sight of actual cash, pressed the silent "panic button" under the counter. Rook then drew his weapon and demanded the keys, which the girl quickly gave him. The team continued on their way, in the stolen furniture truck.

They made it to the Maplewood/Seattle border checkpoint without further incident, and were waved through. However, once inside the killing zone between the two walls, the gate behind them closed and the gate in front of them did not, trapping them in the middle. Two helicopters (civilian, not NERCC) hovered overhead and ordered "the individuals in the stolen van to come out, now"..

The team quickly called Gipetto and told him to open the border gate at their location, an extremely difficult run- but he came through, and the gate opened. Rook sped through the checkpoint, once again sustaining heavy damage to the truck but keeping it under control. The two helicopters gave chase. Bug damaged one heavily, to the point it had to abandon pursuit and crash land. Derek fired on the other one and blew out its main rotor- the helicopter spun out of control and crashed into a nearby tenement building, causing a spectacular disaster. Drake panned the whole scene into Rook's G3K (with the mirror program running) and transmitted it to channel 91 news- she ended the transmission with "Blood is the power".

Having to switch vehicles once again, Rook pulled over when he saw a delivery truck, for Ken's Krispy Chicken. He gave the driver 100 ny to not report the truck stolen for a few hours, and the team (once the clone tank was transferred) once again sped towards Fusama.

This time they made it without incident- they drove the Ken's truck into the Fusama warehouse and wheeled the clone tank downstairs, next to the other tank. Baal was there, still jacked in, laying on the floor twitching. The team disconnected him, but he didn't regain consciousness. Alex was found curled on the floor in the vault, also unconscious. Drake couldn't revive either one of them.

While the team was transferring the clone from the VI tank to the one in the warehouse, they discovered that this clone was a female. Rook and Derek both called Gipetto, and he carried on two distinct conversations with them. Gipetto was, as usual, very vague and avoided the team's questions. He assured them that this clone would be him...sort of...and that he "needed a body". Although not entirely clear about what Gipetto was talking about, the team put the clone body in the tank and, with direction from Gipetto, initiated its programming. Gipetto told the team he would be there to see them "as soon as he could".

Drake called her fixer, Bill, and asked him to just keep his ears open and hear what he could hear, specifically about the helicopter crash in downtown Seattle. That was where the session ended.