LogBrink-Jason-10

Game log for the 2014/12/28 session of Brink, as taken by Jason

Swan and his crew, minus Cipher, go to Ring 23 to salvage some scrubbers and stuff. Swan decides to sit this one out and do his own thing, so he's off doing, um, "escort" work. That goes pretty smooth, and the rest of the party has plenty of game time for rustling some salvage.

It's a quick hop on Chronos' shuttle over to Ring 23. Torch cuts out a chunk of hull plate, which Chauncy mag-clamps to the station hull so it won't fly away. We're in on deck one, which is fairly open since this was an industrial ring. Without power or atmo, it's really, really dark here. Absinthe just rests her hand on a pipe for a moment and some sort of scuttling mechanical creature runs onto her arm and clamps into place. She's clamped to the pipe, too, and trying to cut into her armor. She tries to swat it off with one of her stick-blades, but doesn't seem to do a lot of damage. Swan runs over and tries to bludgeon the little bot with the grapple end of our hauling cable, and gives the bastard a good whack. Torch grabs hold of a bit that wasn't crushed and yanks it clean off, and that's just about all that thing wrote. Torch continues cutting through to the level where the scrubbers would be, and Abner provides navigational assistance. As we get close, we get more nervous, and ultimately we cut a wee inspection port in the final bulkhead before we enter the presumed HVAC room. Through that hole, Swan sees movement. He advises Torch on where to cut to give them the best situation in the room. Absinthe whips out some sort of low-light vision apparatus and thinks there's someone in the room. We calculate that it's a dead body and there must be a 'bot in there that set it in motion.

Warchest and Torch go to make a distraction by setting a small explosive charge on a power conduit a few hundred meters closer to the hub. We don't have any trouble planting it, but as they try to get out, the line that connects them to Chronos' shuttle begins to fray badly. Torch gives Warchest a quick tug to close them up, and the line snaps. They end up bouncing off a deck plate, which is not an optimal location to be when the charge goes off. They get out but it's clear that the response seems curiously muted, which fact Torch communicates to Swan.

Swan would love to hurry but without Torch's cutting tool, he has no way in. They begin collecting spare batteries from the crew, hoping to get enough charge to power a hatch motor and get one open. Unfortunately Swan suffers a mental lapse and shorts out his suit. No radio, no air, no luck at all. Absinthe begins rigging a buddy-breathing line. They can't work effectively with that umbilical between them, so they go back to the shuttle as Torch and Warchest return. That effectively leaves us all back at the beginning, on the dang shuttle. The winch is inside the shuttle, and Swan needs the door closed, so now we can't use the winch. We anchor the drag line to the tie-down on the shuttle's nose, and everyone but Swan and Eyeball goes back in.

The team re-enter and Torch cuts out a section of bulkhead, giving entrance to the HVAC compartment. We also see a bot on the floating corpse. Torch, inspired by the 'neer voice of his mask, uses the power source from his cutter and borrows some wire from Chauncy to build an EMP device on a timer. They wheel it in, the bots come to investigate the new arrival, and the EMP fries them all. Torch resets the cutter, and then under Chauncy's direction, cuts out the HVAC assemblies and cables them up. Now it remains only for Chronos to back the shuttle out, dragging the entire mess of parts with him. Chronos just gets them out, hampered somewhat by useless advice from Swan. The last scrubber in the chain takes quite a beating coming out, but the first three are definitely good, and the fourth might be worth something. Chronos stops the shuttle and collects the personnel, and we're out and safe. Swan calls Henri and reports success. Since the fourth scrubber got busted up, we end up getting just one vac suit and some batteries.

Torch talks to Cipher about the devourer that he sensed in the ex-wormhole during the last session. Cipher tries to open his mind up to see if there's really a devourer out there, and feels like maybe there's something inside the wormhole that's trying to get out.

We start setting up for the anti-Din operation. Warchest sets Torch up with his machine gun, and Chronos up with a howdah pistol, while Absinthe and Swan set her up with a knockout glove.

The assault force mounts up on the tank, which makes for some awkward quarters on the tank. It's Torch, Swan, Absinthe, Cipher, Warchest, and Flail, with Chronos driving. Just as they leave, Swan has Absinthe punch him in the face, to make it look like there's been some genuine strife there. Swan calls ahead to Chainsaw and lets him know that he's bringing Absinthe in. Chainsaw tells him to come in to Bay D. The bay door close behind them, which is a little non-cool.

Swan and Chronos both totally chunder their Read A Sitch rolls, but Absinthe knows what time it is. She sees Crank there with a small gang and knows that he's the biggest threat, while a couple guys in that gang look dopey and will probably be slow off the mark. Chronos sees a guy on a walkway level an RPG at the tank, and fires a flare at him to let him know he cares. Absinthe also notices that Crank is here, not Chainsaw. The flare causes Crank and his men to scatter. Swan gets on the loudspeaker and demands to know where Chainsaw is, but Crank jumps right to it, yelling that it's a trick, and his men open fire. Swan oders Chronos to pull the shuttle up to the bay door, so Torch can cut them out. Torch does so but takes a wound from flying molten metal, and is distracted by the need to keep his suit closed.

The shuttle grounds and Swan yells for the team to deploy. Cipher gets down behind a bulkhead. Absinthe runs out, trying to deliver suppressive fire, and forcing some heads down. Torch begins patching his suit so he can get stuck in without having to worry about it, and uses the jaw wiring hardware on his mask as a tape cutter like it was put there for just such a purpose. Chronos flies right at the RPG gunner, trying to force him to keep his head down through sheer terror. Swan sees that the hostiles are all deploying to surround the intruding force, but decides to worry about the targets he can see before he checks six. The hail of fire from his SMG causes them to freeze, stumbling back before they even get to cover. Absinthe reads the situation and suppresses one enemy position, keeping Flail clean. Torch sets up shop on the catwalk. Chronos tries to use the shuttle to ram guys; if they have to duck for cover, that should inconvience them a bit. Cipher spots Crank heading for the door, and asks Chronos to get him into position. Torch is barely set up on the catwalk and realizes that he's lost sight of the guy with the RPG.

Chronos blocks off the door with the shuttle, and at just the right moment, Cipher tosses his painwave projector out the door like it was a grenade. The hostiles in the impact area scatter, and are thus out of cover. Absinthe cuts down a couple guys who she caught in the open. Torch opens fire, shoots many dudes, and sets off a bunch of propellant tanks, clearing an entire corner of the room. Flail grabs Swan and drags him to safety just as the tanks flow. The hostiles, suprised by the heavy fire and explosion, are almost eliminated, including Crank. Swan orders the team to eliminate the survivors. Cipher saves one of the wounded so he can give the Woots the soul they want. Warchest calls for us to bring in the pod- seems he's found a belt of ammo for the pod's weaponry. Swan orders Warchest, Flail, Absinthe, and Torch to go in with him so they can find Chainsaw. Chronos ducks out with Cipher to deliver the captive to the Woots - they need to make a separate trip since there's no room in the pod for prisoners.

We lock in from the bay to the Den proper, which is a nervous moment. Chainsaw gets on the intercom and asks Swan what's going. Swan replies that he's ask Chainsaw's men why they opened fire, but since they're all dead, he can't. Chainsaw offers to let him out and call it all over, but Swan replies that he still wants to talk about this. Swan opens his brain and, in The Red, sees right where Chainsaw is, over in sector B. Torch uses his residual 'neer senses and knows there's an ambush right on the other side of the door. Swan backs out of the airlock and tells everyone we're waiting for the tank to show up, then we'll cut over to sector B.

The airlock comm unit's light is beeping. Chainsaw doesn't like us backing out; he wants us to go through to the spine. Swan says hell no, he's not marching through there under Chainsaw's guns. He's waiting for a ride and looting the bay to take payment. Once Chronos returns, then, secure in the pod, Swan gives the order to head for sector B.

Over in the Woot ring, Cipher very carefully drags the prisoner into their territory. Once he's in their turf, then they boil out of the walls, and help carry the guy. They bring Cipher before Mama Woot, and she accepts his gift. He also offers service in exchange for enlightenment, and when she invites him to speak on, asks about the Devourer. She forks the warding sign against evil at him and tells him not to speak of it. They confirm that they oppose "it", or rather, "all of them." She then invites him to depart. Promptly. Very promptly. He leaves and heads home via the corridors and elevators. He checks in with Swan, who tells him to roll out bandages back home.

Chronos picks his spot and breaches... directly into an electrical conduit. Torch and Warchest, on the front line of the pod, have to duck smart to avoid being roasted, and also have to board without touching anything on the hull. Given the risks of boarding through a conduit, Swan and Chronos contemplate breaching again elsewhere, but decide that time is of the essence. He's just barely leaving the pod when the shooting starts. Torch and Warchest have no trouble brushing aside the handful of guys who initially offer resistance, but that leads us to a pressure bulkhead. If we breach that bulkhead, we're venting the next compartment to vacuum, but we're fine with that. We take stock as we go and realize that the next area is a large assembly line, with a series of elevated offices and control rooms that see the whole thing. Odds are Chainsaw will be there. The best way to get there would be to cut our way in someplace besides the door, being careful of booby traps. We move through the compartment, Warchest and Torch laying down a whupping with their machine guns, while Absinthe gives Chronos rough directions to where on the exterior of the ring Chainsaw's office would be, hoping maybe he can breach right into Chainsaw's office. Chronos can handle that. The assault team gets to the wall of the compartment just as Chronos gets into position, so we effectively breach both walls of the compartment at once. As we step through, we see a cordon of fire aimed at the whole created by the breaching pod. Swan and Absinthe see the troops deployed as ambushers on the bulkhead door, and make them surrender... just before Warchest kills them all. Torch begins suppressing the guys shooting at the breaching pod's entrance. Chronos tries to back off so he can fire through the breach, but he doesn't judge it right and gets his own vehicle caught in the blast.

Swan, Absinthe, and Flail go up the stairs, taking advantage of Torch's covering fire. Flail opens the door at the top, allowing Swan to see a couple guys with their backs to him, and mag dumps on them. Absinthe follows, and Flail tosses a grenade down through the offices, adding to the carnage and creating a bit of a smoke cloud. They move through the offices until they accidentally trip a grenade trap, which knocks out and Disfigures Swan and knocks Absinthe down. Flail freaks out when Swan goes down and begins hurling grenades like a pitching machine. Absinthe follows cautiously, knowing that she's near her physical limits. Chainsaw steps out of a room right next to Flail, trying to ambush her, but Absinthe is ready and gets her shot off first. Chainsaw has to drop and duck back into the room. Flail begins suppressing that door way while backing up, giving Chronos directions to breach into the room Chainsaw's in now. Chronos just barely tracks that and Chainsaw has an instant to dive across the hall, through the window, and out into the main room... which space Torch has been covering, so it's a matter of little extra effort for him to riddle the body as it comes down. He doesn't know who it was until Flail calls "Chainsaw's down!" on comms. She then hauls Swan into the shuttle and asks Absinthe if she wants to go too. We briefly debate our next course of action, which Swan down, and Torch offers everyone a chance to surrender with Chainsaw and Crank down. Flail decides to stay once Absinthe and Swan are on the shuttle. Torch gets on the emergency frequency and tells the workers to begin immediate damage control procedures, assuring them that their jobs and pay scales remain unchanged. The security folks must stand fast and wait.

Cipher tries to access the world of doors but stumbles horribly. When he returns to the world, he's blind.