.png "English"){kind=small}
DATA LOSS // LOG 05: Trapped in the Deep Dark
I’m in no condition to face a giant metamind or navigate high-security lab sectors while dragging a useless leg. I override the controls on the lowest hydraulic door and slip into the subterranean transit tunnel. The air pressure drops instantly, popping my ears as I descend into the humid, dust-choked tunnels of the Mines.
The walls down here aren't just rock; they're thick with an irregular, pulsing crystalline growth that glows with an eerie, sickly violet light. The deeper I walk, the more a low, resonant vibration echoes right inside my teeth. The air tastes like battery acid, but I keep moving, desperate for a stim-pack or a bandage.
ROOM 1: THE SUBSURFACE JUNCTION (HAZARD & INFO)
The transit tunnel opens up into a massive, multi-tiered excavation chamber. I stumble past a rusted ore cart and freeze. A heavy, industrial-grade warning sign flashes a digital alert across my HUD:
CRITICAL RADIATION HAZARD // INTEGRITY WARNING:
"Sub-surface crystal resonance exceeding safe limits. Prolonged organic proximity risks cellular decay and neural degradation. Do not touch the walls."
Great. The very walls are trying to eat my soul. To make matters worse, the narrow catwalk I need to cross is completely choked out by a massive cluster of these pulsing purple shards, vibrating so hard they're humming a dissonant chord. Walking past them means exposing my fresh clone body to intense psychic and physical radiation.
I look down at my leg, then at the newly salvaged Arcwire Tool in my hand. I don't have the luxury of finding another path. If I can use the tool's heavy cutting function at maximum output, I might be able to slice a clean path through the base of the crystal cluster, causing the glowing mass to break off and collapse down into the dark mining shaft below before I step through.
Janse is trying to use technical gear to bypass an environmental hazard. This falls under the Logic skillset. Janse's Logic is a standard d6. However, because Janse is still injured and hindered from the shrapnel wound, the die drops down to a brutal d4.
Rolling 1d4... Result: 2 (Disaster!)
The GM Renders the Verdict: A 2 is a straight-up Disaster. The risk manifests in full, and Janse fails the objective.
I ignition-spark the Arcwire Tool, its cutting beam sizzling to life, and jam it into the base of the crystalline structure. Huge mistake. The moment the high-frequency energy beam contacts the crystal, the entire cluster acts like a massive capacitor and violently discharges. A blinding flash of violet lightning arcs off the wall, slamming straight into my chest and throwing me flat on my back.
The psychic feedback is horrific. I can feel my memories slipping, frayed like burnt wires. The Arcwire Tool drops from my hand, its internal circuits fried and completely broken.
Per the rules, proximity to the hum or suffering a major crystal feedback event risks an Integrity loss. Janse must roll Integrity to see if his SOUL is beginning to corrupt. Janse's Integrity is currently a d6.
Rolling 1d6... Result: 2 (Integrity Drops!)
The feedback strips away a layer of my consciousness. My maximum Integrity permanently degrades, dropping from a d6 down to a d4. I can barely remember what my own face looks like anymore. I am lying in the dirt, clutching my head, completely blind with a migraine, with a mangled leg and a useless, broken tool.
A SHADOW IN THE TUNNEL
Through my blurry vision, I hear the crunch of heavy boots on loose gravel. A shadow falls over me. I look up, expecting another mindless corrupted worker ready to finish me off.
Instead, it's a living breathing human. He’s wearing a dirty, armored environment suit, holding a heavy slug-thrower pistol loosely at his side, and looking down at me with a mixture of pity and extreme caution. His gear is tagged with the name Grafton.
"You look like absolute hell, friend," Grafton says, his voice muffled through a filtration mask. "And you're radiating enough violet heat to light up a city block. I’ve got medical supplies—a fresh Medic8 stim—but out here, nothing is free. What have you got to trade for your life?"
Talk about a desperate situation. Janse is at rock bottom. His Integrity is compromised, his leg is torn up, and his only weapon/tool is broken.
If you're interested in playing 2400 Data Loss, you can find it here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment