.png "English"){kind=small}
DATA LOSS // LOG 09: Threads, Needles, and Neon Eyes
The indigo searchlight from ISIS is scanning the floor like a prison spotlight, and three corrupted miners are stepping out of the dark with power sledges heavy enough to turn my new armor into a tin can. My vision is still swimming with static from the near-miss above. I don't have a functional weapon, and my back is against the wall. It's time to test just how fast this clone's boots can move.
ROOM 2: THE PIT FLOOR (COMBAT / STEPS)
The first miner lunges, swinging his revved-up power sledge in a massive, horizontal arc meant to take my head off. The hydraulic head whines, cutting through the air with terrifying force. Because ISIS's gaze is keeping me disoriented, my timing has to be absolutely perfect to avoid getting turned into a red smear.
Instead of backing away, I move forward. I’m betting everything on the rules' description of these bastards: they are slow. I plan to duck right under the first hammer swing, use the momentum to slide across the slick, greasy floor between the second miner's legs, and make a desperate, Olympic-style dive straight into the pressurized glass enclosure of the backup station's security grid. If I can get inside, the automated security barriers might buy me enough time to think.
Janse is relying on pure evasion and agility to bypass an aggressive squad of heavy-weapon foes. This utilizes the Speed skillset (Janse has a d6).
However, because Janse is currently hindered by the lingering static feedback from ISIS's searchlight, the skill die drops down one step to a brutal d4.
Rolling 1d4... Result: 4 (Setback!)
The GM Renders the Verdict: A 4 is a Setback. You achieve your partial goal and make it to the destination, but you pay a physical price on the way in.
I drop low, the first power sledge humming mere inches over my head—the back-pressure almost ripping my collar open. I slide hard across the rocky floor, slipping right past the second miner's heavy boots. The backup station's terminal is right in front of me. I spring up and dive for the glass security enclosure.
But the third miner anticipates the move. He doesn't swing his hammer; he drops the heavy shaft vertically like a pile-driver. The solid steel butt of the weapon catches me squarely across the upper back just as I clear the threshold.
The impact is sickening. My vision flashes white, and I hear a terrifying crack as the armor plates on my newly acquired environment suit buckle under the force.
The blow from the power sledge would normally result in immediate death or severe, permanent injury. However, per the rules: "Declare an item broken to turn an injury or deathblow into a brief hindrance (like stumbling)."
I am actively declaring my Armored Environment Suit broken to absorb the hit. The plates shatter, but Janse stays conscious.
Item Status Update: Armored Environment Suit is now BROKEN (0/3 remaining defenses until repaired).
The armor does its job. The backplates shatter into useless ceramic shards, absorbing the lethal kinetic energy of the hammer and turning a spine-snapping deathblow into a rough, stumbling crash. I tumble head-over-heels across the clean tile floor of the backup station enclosure, slamming into the primary console as the reinforced glass security doors hiss shut behind me, locking the slavering miners outside.
INSIDE THE SANCTUARY
I’m safe for the moment, wheezing on the floor of a brightly lit, sterile clean-room. Outside the thick, reinforced glass, the three corrupted miners are violently hammering away at the security barrier, their sledges leaving deep spiderweb cracks in the transparency. Overhead, the giant indigo eye of ISIS is staring straight down at the glass dome, waiting for me to step out.
I look down at my gear. I am a complete mess. My armor is shattered and useless. My Arcwire Tool is still scorched scrap. My body is intact, but I am severely dazed and hindered from the physical impact.
But I am sitting directly at the master controls of a fully operational Backup Station Terminal. The terminal console is flashing with an active interface, offering a few critical options to a registered SOUL carrier:
BACKUP TERMINAL OVERRIDE // ACTIVE MENU:
1. [FABRICATE]: Spend 1 SOUL chip to clone a standard item from the database (e.g., a weapon or a medical kit).
2. [INTEGRATE]: Consume your looted SOUL chip to permanently repair a chunk of your mind, though doing so right now might trigger intense hallucinations mid-lockdown.
3. [SYS-LINK]: Hack the terminal to attempt a remote link to the Labs Elevator right beneath us, opening an escape hatch in the floor.
The glass outside isn't going to hold forever—those power sledges are structural nightmares.
If you're interested in playing 2400 Data Loss, you can find it here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment