2400 Data Loss 9

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.

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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.

MECHANICS CORNER: THE SPEED RUN
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.

MECHANICS CORNER: DEFENSE TRIGGERED
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.

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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.

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2400 Data Loss 8

DATA LOSS // LOG 08: Dangling Over the Abyss

The Labs sound like another high-security maze, and frankly, my brain can’t take any more electronic locks right now. I need to get to that backup station at the bottom of the pit. I approach the edge of the chasm, the cold updraft from the bottomless void whistling against my newly acquired armored environment suit.

Suspended directly in the center of the dark cavern is ISIS. It’s a massive, geometric block of black alloy and exposed cooling fins, completely silent except for a low, hydraulic purr. Its primary sensor lens—a massive, dead-grey searchlight eye—is currently angled downward, staring blankly into the dark. If that eye blinks awake and catches me in its gaze, it won't just kill my clone; it'll dissolve the fragile d4 Integrity I have left.

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THE DESCENT: THE CAVERN PIT (HAZARD)

Thick, grease-covered power cables dangle from the metamind's chassis, stretching all the way down to the edge of the pit floor like giant, synthetic vines. I tuck my broken Arcwire Tool securely into my belt, wrap my armored gloves around the freezing metal weave of the nearest cable, and swing my legs out over the black drop.

The goal is pure stealth: slide down the line slowly, moving only when the machine's cooling vents cycle with a loud hiss to mask the sound of my armor scraping the cable. I need to drop past its blind spot before those sensor arrays spin up.

MECHANICS CORNER: THE STEALTH DESCENT
Janse is attempting a quiet, physical descent to avoid detection by a lethal metamind. This utilizes the Speed skillset. Janse's Speed is a standard d6.

Thanks to the Medic8 shot from the last log, Janse is no longer injured. However, the rules state that carrying 2+ heavy items or being hindered by circumstances can lower your die. While Janse's armor is sturdy, it's considered standard pads/riot gear, and he's not overburdened. We roll the flat d6.

Rolling 1d6... Result: 3 (Setback!)

The GM Renders the Verdict: A 3 is a Setback. You make progress down the pit, but the sleeping giant isn't completely asleep anymore.

I’m halfway down the cable, muscle fibers straining as I lower myself centimeter by centimeter, when my armored boot slips on a thick patch of synthetic grease. *SCHLIT.* My leg swings out, and my knee armor cracks loudly against a structural steel guide rail. The echo rings through the cavern like a gunshot.

Above me, the giant geometric chassis of ISIS groans. Internal cooling fans instantly spike into a high-pitched whine, and the massive, dead-grey sensor lens snaps to life with a blinding, neon-indigo glow. The searchlight beam begins to sweep across the cables, hunting for the source of the vibration.

I slide down the remaining fifteen meters of the cable at a breakneck speed, burning the palms of my gloves, and hit the rocky floor of the pit just as the indigo light washes over the wall right above my head. I dive behind a heavy steel equipment crate at the base of the primary backup station, but the edge of the beam clips my left arm. A jolt of pure static passes through my mind, making my vision blur. I am safely at the bottom, but ISIS is active, searching, and I am officially hindered by the near-miss of its gaze.

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ROOM 2: THE PIT FLOOR (ENCOUNTER)

I'm crouched in the shadows, my heart hammering against my ribs, watching the indigo searchlight circle the cavern floor. The primary backup station is right here—a sleek, pristine corporate terminal glowing with a beautiful, clean white light. It's an oasis in this dump. If I can secure it, I can use my Repair Gel to finally fix my broken Arcwire Tool in peace.

But the noise from my descent didn't just wake up the metamind.

From the dark recesses of the lower tunnels, three figures step into the flashing indigo light. They’re Corrupted Miners. They’re moving with a slow, jerky coordination, their muscles unnaturally swollen from crystal exposure. Two of them are dragging heavy, industrial-grade Power Sledges that spark against the stone floor, and their faces are completely obscured by thick, glowing violet crystal growths. They block the terminal entirely.

They know I'm down here. The closest miner lifts a massive power sledge over his shoulder, the hydraulic head of the hammer revving up with a lethal bass thrum.

I am trapped at the bottom of a pit. A giant eye is hunting me from above (hindering my next move), a heavy-weapon squad is closing in from the front, and my only tool is broken. But I still have my mind, my armor, and 1 SOUL Chip in my pocket.

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2400 Data Loss 7

DATA LOSS // LOG 07: Cornered, Broken, and Redlined

Grafton is locking his sights onto my chest, his finger tightening on the trigger. My shoulder is a burning hole, my Arcwire Tool is scorched scrap, and my head feels like it's being microwaved. If he fires again, I’m headed right back to the cloning vat, and with my Integrity sitting at a fragile d4, my next clone might just be a mindless vegetable. No more holding back. It's time to use every single thing left in my inventory and my skull to end this right now.

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ROOM 1: THE SUBSURFACE JUNCTION (THE CLIMAX)

I don't just make a move—I launch a full-scale, desperate assault using my remaining gear and my telekinetic rig simultaneously. With my left hand, I pull the trigger on the pressurized canister of industrial Repair Gel, spraying a massive, thick stream of the fast-hardening gray compound directly at his filtration mask to clog his vision and choke his air intake.

At the exact same instant, I scream through the pain, focusing my bleeding mind on the mechanical slide of his slug-thrower pistol. I'm tapping back into my Shatter mod, channeling every drop of my Will to violently crush the firing pin assembly inside the gun before the hammer can drop. To ensure this works, I'm leaning heavily on my environment—forcing Grafton back toward the hum of the vibrating purple crystals behind him to disorient his footing.

MECHANICS CORNER: THE ALL-OUT GAMBIT
Janse is throwing everything into this roll. This is a Will-based task (Base: d8) to execute the Shatter mod.

However, Janse is hindered by the fresh bullet wound and psychic strain, which drops the skill die down to a d6.

BUT, Janse is getting a major environmental advantage by using the Repair Gel to blind the foe and driving him into a hazard. The rules state: "If helped by circumstances (high ground, or an injured/disadvantaged foe), roll an extra d6."

Additionally, Janse is declaring his one clear memory of Ty—remembering how good it felt to break that bastard's nose—offering a mental flashback to bolster his determination, allowing him to use his Integrity (d4) as an additional resource. We take the highest die out of the pool!

Rolling 2d6 (Skill + Circumstance) and 1d4 (Integrity/Flashback)...
Results: d6 = 2, d6 = 6, d4 = 3.
Highest Die: 6 (Success!)

The GM Renders the Verdict: A clean, unadulterated 6! A magnificent Success when everything was on the line.

The tactical synergy is beautiful. The pressurized gray Repair Gel hits Grafton's filtration mask dead-on, instantly expanding and hardening into an airtight, solid crust over his visors. He gasps, completely blinded and suffocating, stumbling backward into the glowing crystal cluster.

Before he can instinctively pull the trigger, my telekinetic Shatter wave slams into his pistol. *CRACK.* The heavy metal slide splits down the middle, and the internal springs violently explode out of the chassis, tearing through his gloves. The gun is rendered completely useless.

Grafton drops to his knees, clawing frantically at the hardened gel suffocating his face, entirely defeated and at my mercy. I step over him, coughing up a bit of gray soot, but I am standing victorious.

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TOTAL STRIP-MINE

I don't have time for sentimentality in the deep dark. Grafton is down, wheezing through the edges of his ruined mask, and I need to secure my survival. I strip his gear before he can recover or draw another backup weapon.

MECHANICS CORNER: THE SPOILS OF WAR
Janse successfully neutralizes Grafton without taking further damage. I am looting his high-value gear to replace what I've lost and upgrade my loadout.

Acquired: Armored Environment Suit (Pads/Riot Gear; can break 3× as defense to negate a deathblow).
Acquired: 1 clean SOUL Chip (The one I traded him, reclaimed from his pouch).

I pull his heavy, armored environment suit off his shoulders and strap it over my torn clone coveralls. The thick plates give me immediate structural protection—I can now deliberately break parts of this armor up to 3 times to completely shrug off what would otherwise be a fatal wound. I also reach into his vest and reclaim my glowing green SOUL chip.

Leaving Grafton alive but thoroughly humbled and scraping the gel off his mask, I take my broken Arcwire Tool and limp deeper down into the mining shaft, now heavily armored but still carrying my injuries.

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THE CHASM ELEVATOR

The tunnel opens into a gargantuan underground cavern. Suspended right over a pitch-black bottomless pit is a colossal, silent structure: ISIS, a local metamind. Cables thick as tree trunks dangle from its floating chassis down to the pit's floor, vibrating with immense power. At the absolute bottom of the dark pit, I can see the soft, welcoming glow of a primary backup station.

But right now, ISIS's massive mechanical eye is dark, aimed away from me. To escape this sector and find a way to repair my broken Arcwire tool or heal my lingering bruises, I need to climb down the dangling cables past the sleeping colossus to reach the elevator base. However, the rules warn that getting caught in ISIS's direct gaze risks melting your very Integrity away.

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