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DATA LOSS // LOG 02: Playing Dirty in the Dirt
So, there I was. Back stuck against a pile of sharp industrial scrap, ears ringing from a telekinetic backlash, and a second corrupted worker stepping over his buddy's broken pipe with a rusted shiv raised high. My head feels like an over-clocked graphics card, and I'm already tracking dirt onto my fresh clone suit. Time to see if Janse can think fast under pressure.
ROOM 1: THE RESIDENTIAL BLOCK (CONCLUDED)
The worker lunges, the rusted shiv aimed straight for my throat. Because of that nasty psychic whiplash from my last move, my reflexes are sluggish. I am officially hindered. I can’t rely on a clean TK blast without risking frying my own synapses.
Instead of trying to be elegant, I'm playing dirty. I reach out with my bare hands, grab a handful of the loose, metallic soot from the dirt road beneath me, and use a tiny, desperate flare of my TK implant to launch it like a shotgun blast of grit right into the worker's eyes. If I can blind him, I can scramble out of this scrap heap and tackle him to the concrete before he can stick me.
Janse is trying to rely on raw Speed to throw dirt and tackle the foe. Normally, Speed is a d6. However, because Janse was hindered by the previous setback, the die size drops by one step down to a d4.
Rolling 1d4... Result: 5 (Success!)
The GM Renders the Verdict: Against the odds, a 5 is a clean Success! Even with a d4, Janse pulls it off beautifully.
The telekinetic burst sends a blinding cloud of sharp, magnetic dust straight into the worker’s face. He shrieks, dropping his guard and clawing at his eyes. Capitalizing on the distraction, I shake off my mental fog, drive my shoulder right into his midsection, and slam him hard onto the cracked pavement.
The rusted shiv clatters out of his hand. Before he can recover, I grab the heavy, broken half of the iron pipe from the first guy and finish the job. A dull, digital chime echoes in my ear as his body falls perfectly still.
LOOTING THE REBOOT
I’m breathing heavy, standing over two dead shells. But in this game, death comes with a timer. A holographic countdown blinks to life in my peripheral vision: DRM Lysis Protocol: 120s. If I don't move fast, the corporate security software embedded in their tech will vaporize everything into ash.
I drop to my knees and rifle through their pockets, ripping out what I can find before the disintegration micro-lasers kick in.
Per the rules, defeating standard enemies yields roughly ~1 SOUL chip per player. I'm also searching the immediate area (Room 1, Item roll) to see what else these workers were hoarding before they lost their minds.
Acquired: 1 SOUL Chip.
Rolling d20 for Room Item... Result: 15 (Repair Gel, 1 use).
Right at the 15-second mark, both bodies dissolve into a fine, sparkling grey powder, leaving behind a pristine, glowing green data wafer—a SOUL chip—and a pressurized canister of corporate-branded Repair Gel. I pocket both. I might not have a weapon yet, but a can of structural adhesive can fix broken tech or seal a door in a pinch.
THE ROAD AHEAD
The residential block is clear, but I can't stay here. The dirt road splits in front of me, winding past collapsed neon signs and rusted chain-link fences. According to my internal navigation layout, I've got two main routes out of the Outskirts:
- The Plant: A massive, fenced-in power refinery humming with lethal voltage. I can hear the distant thrum of heavy machinery from here.
- The Mines: A plunging drop into a subterranean network via a massive, open mine shaft.
But there's a catch. The local graffiti scrawled on a nearby concrete barrier warns that traveling these roads risks attracting the attention of a massive, aggressive tunneler mech that hunts things making vibrations on the surface.
If you're interested in playing 2400 Data Loss, you can find it here.
