SWN Sector Cabal Sigma Session One- The Wrong Side of Heaven (part 2)

Session Zero
Session One Part 1

The four began the Danger Room "exercise" cautiously, realizing stepping on any of the squares could trigger problems, Able using his "Fix" skill disabled the panel in front of him rendering it safe to step on. Bras Hombre tried to do the same, but he was no tech. Osric took a few tentative steps into the room, only to come face to face with a robot popping up from the floor in front of him and beginning to activate it's taser hands. Osric swung his melee weapon and beheaded the robot. Varlo stepped into the room and jumped back avoiding the pit trap that opened up beneath him. Soon more robots were triggered. Then the thing...the Hybrid Mergence MOVED! It scuttled across the room quickly, triggering traps as it moved, another robot popped up and then some form of thick vision obscuring fog, then the Hybrid Mergence triggered a pit trap and fell into the trap. 

                                          The Hybrid Mergence

Able decided this was his chance and dashed across the room and dove into the pit after the thing. With each step he made a loud click occurred...multiple robots appeared, a Gatling gun popped up in the corner and whirred into life, barrels of some sort of flaming substance shot out of the wall and fire spilled out into the room approaching the edge of the pit containing Able and the thing.   

Then things went really wild, the robots that activated the prior round now moved towards the four. This trigged explosions, more robots, including a life-like robotic version of Stalin (who drew its pistol), a crevasse appeared dividing the room, and an Energy Cannon appeared. Varlo nearest to the Gatling gun, safely got to the Gatling gun (although a robot was now activated right beside Bras Hombre). Varlo hacked into the Gatling gun's system and was able to manually take control of it (he rolled so well with his skill check that he altered the things programmed damage output and rate of fire). Bras Hombre was locked in combat with a robot, while Osric used his psionic powers to telekinetically lift Able (now holding the Hybrid Mergence) out of the pit and towards the exit. Robot Stalin popped off a shot at the airborne Able hurting him but not "killing" him. Just as a flaming barrel emerged from the wall and melted robot Stalin into slag.  The Plasma gun activated, misfired and overheated blowing up. Bras Hombre had managed to pry up a floor panel giving him some cover from all the chaos. A blizzard of ice and snow(WTH?!!) activated in the middle of the room spilling over into the crevasse and mixing in with the flames from the burning barrels, steam made visibility even harder. As robots were taken out more appeared in their place. The words of the robot announcer at the start of this fiasco echoed in their heads...this was an "Introductory Scenario" to the danger room?!   

Unbeknownst to the party, their encounter was being broadcast on more channels across Riot, and even a few bars on the orbiting Outlaw Station.  Varlo then used the reprogrammed Gatling Gun to unleash a massive volley of "bullets" across the room, robots were taken out... along with Able and Bras Hombre!! In all this chaos it was friendly fire that took out half the party. The party couldn't hear it but bar patrons  cheered as Val (unintentionally?) took out two of his teammates. Osric knowing they were about to go down in flames (literally?) dashed to Able's fallen form, retrieved the Hybrid Mergence and was able to open the exit door. The program ended, the fires, fog and blizzard dispersed. The simulation was ended.  Bras Hombre and Able shook their heads, groggily waking up, bruised but alive and with bad headaches.   

The robot announcer instructed the four that the exercise was over, and directed them to the freshers and to return the Hybrid Mergence to the containment cube now appearing in the room.  Osric started in that direction, but then he sensed something. The Hybrid Mergence was a living thing! And it was projecting emotions to Osric...fear, sadness, most of all it wanted to escape this place! Osric realized it had some level of sentience and some level of psychic ability...at least some level of empathy. At the last minute Osric swapped out a small ration pack from his gear while stowing the creature in his clothing he dropped the ration pack into the containment cube, acting like he was returning the Hybrid Mergence, which now was secreted under his clothing and then excited the Danger Room. Varlo grinned from ear to ear, while Able gave him a menacing glare and Bras Hombre shook his head.

SWN Cabal Sigma Session One -The Wrong Side of Heaven (part 1)

Year: 01/01/3022 

Sector: Cabal Sigma 

Planet Riot, Royale System – The Thieves Worlds 

Bras Hombre – Human, Warrior Gunslinger- he had grown up amidst the streets and gangs of Riot (Ree-oht), he knew the various gangs, their territories, their combat rituals and how to handle himself. He also knew not to cross the Arena Council that kept the big coliseum fights running and profitable. He had recently returned to Riot, after doing some "special" work with a starship crew. 

Varlo Auten – Human Psychic – Pilot- another Riotian, his psionic healing abilities had earned him work healing up the gladiators injured in the arenas, then finding he had a knack for piloting, he spent some time flying the cargo vessels and other small spacecraft that connected the Thieves Worlds, under this strange "democratic" government run by the Thieves Guild.  

Osric – Human –Adventurer Warrior/Psychic, Barbarian – newly arrived to Riot, he was from the distant primitive world of Bohemond. Definitely not a Thieves Worlder, but a fish out of water, having been driven off his homeworld due to a dangerous Warlord and his own emerging powers, he had to find his way in this foreign land, with technologies and cultures he only vaguely understood. He knew he needed allies and the understanding of his powers, if he was ever going to be able to return to his forested world of Bohemond.  

Able- Uplifted Chimp Expert with a knack to fix most anything. He was from the nearby Thieves World known as Slough Feg, a failed terraform project, uplifted chimps were being used (forced) by the majority human population, to upkeep and maintain the life giving machines needed to keep everyone alive on the yellow mist shrouded world. Then there was the Ape Uprising a year ago...things turned ugly. The Chimps lost.  

 

Four associates, some were friends, some had just recently met one another, found themselves here on Riot, in the famous Battle Tower, a site popular with the world's gladiators and arena fans . They had been told they had won tickets for a session in the Battle Tower's Danger Room. A high tech simulation room used by many of the world's gladiators for training and practice. Many would say they were lucky to have such a chance. The actual cost for such a slot would have been way beyond their meager means, not to mention the long waiting list to get inside. 

They were in a large, square two story gray steel room laid out in a grid-like pattern. A robot droned on about how this facility was made possible through the technologies of Blacktron TransGalactic in cooperation with the Arena Council, through the generosity of the Thieves Guild..the robot stammered...static, droned on some more, rebooted itself then finished the introduction...the machinery had been through a lot over the years.  The room though functional had undergone hard use. Blaster marks could be seen on the walls, burn marks...weird stains.   They were told deaths never occurred in the danger room, well hardly ever...ok...not that often. The goal of this exercise? to stay alive, to recover the thing...what did the robot call the thing again?? A Hybrid Mergence?! And get the thing to the exit door. Simple right? All while being watched on vid screens in bars, taverns, and worse all over Riot. They could end the program anytime it got to rough, simply by saying the safe word/phrase..."we are wussies..wussies..wussies"… Able wondered aloud, "did the robot stutter or were they supposed to say wussies three times?"...no one answered...then the room shifted and the "introductory" exercise began. Someone muttered out loud,"I've got a bad feeling about this"... 

 More to come...