Dark*Matter: Discovery, The First Mission

[kinem]

"Thanks, Meredith. Still hurts though!" Damn! Diego attempts to inspect his wounded arm.

Suddenly, the sound of shots inside the building tells him the fighting's not over. He doesn't want to take another hit, so he creeps cautiously towards the door, then realizes that another enemy has been downed. He enters.

"Damn!" he declares. "Sorry to see you got hit too. I'll help search, least I can do, if we have to. I hope the Hoffman Institute has medics in that backup team I thought they were sending."

 

[Shayuri]

Meri grabs the shotgun and runs with Diego to join the others in the motel room.

"Duffman's alive, but out," she reports. "I...uh...borrowed this from their van. I figured we might need a bit more firepower than these handguns have." She beams.

"Anyway...lets get moving and clean up in here. Hopefully we can figure out what they were up to!"

She glances at the piles of sand. "And what they are..."

 

[Falkus]

A quick search of the hotel reveals no more people present. The five men and women handcuffed in the reception area turn out to be unconscious. Closer examination reveals that each one of them has been injected with something in the neck.

In the manager's office, from where the Surgeon appeared, there's an unconscious man lying on a hastily improvised surgical table. He looks to have been cut open and sewed up again. He's also been injected in the same location as the people in the reception area.

A number of hypodermic needles are still on a tray near the table. Several of them (six) are empty, but the remaining four are still filled with some liquid, that has a faint, yellow glow to it.

Examination of the man's briefcase, which is lying nearby on the floor, reveals that he's a scientist named Ian Edwards who's working with the NuTech facility located in town after being transferred here a few days ago.

Franks is dead, cut in half by the laser. He isn't carrying any sort of identification or any sort of personal effects on him.

OOC: You each gain 2300 experience points

 

[industrygothica]

"Well, we'll definitely have to take the samples back to the lab," Nick says, disturbingly invigorated by the science behind it all. "Surely they have the equipment to break this stuff down and see what's in it, and what it's supposed to do," he continues, referring to the syringes on the table.

"I don't think we should try and wake anyone just yet. There's no telling what this stuff is, and after what we've seen already, who knows what these guys could be like when they're not sleeping, especially this guy," he points to the stitched-up man on the table. "Got a feeling he may have a bad attitude when he wakes up."

"Oh, and Cade - don't let me forget, I've got something for you back in the van."

 

[iwatt]

Once the action part of the adventure was over, Larry leaves the evidence handling and collecting to the brains of the group. His natural laziness combines with his splitting headache for the young con artist to go back to the car and sit down near the radios. He waves off any medical attention, he'll wait for the medics. He does clean up some and is ready to divert any onlookers who come asking questions about the gunfire. Meanwhile, his mind worries about all the weirdness he'd spotted this day, and not only of the sand morphing variety. The keyboard falling exactly when he'd been hoping for some distraction had taken an ominous note. He'd always thought he was just lucky, but maybe there was something else going on.


OOC: 2,300 xp is enough for Level 3. Cool !

 

[Friadoc]

Once the building seems secure, Cade helps with the evidence collection, even though his chest is killing him.

"Yeah, I zigged when I should dove under a dumptruck," says Cade to Diego.

A half-smile forms on Cade's face as he chuckles when Meredith mentions the shotgun, "Aww, your first loot." However, he quickly adds, "I think these are the Lords of Sand/"

While helping Nick round up the evidence, Cade says to the Professor, "I hope it's some vicodin, but probably note, huh?"

 

[industrygothica]

Once the building seems secure, Cade helps with the evidence collection, even though his chest is killing him.

"Yeah, I zigged when I should dove under a dumptruck," says Cade to Diego.

A half-smile forms on Cade's face as he chuckles when Meredith mentions the shotgun, "Aww, your first loot." However, he quickly adds, "I think these are the Lords of Sand/"

While helping Nick round up the evidence, Cade says to the Professor, "I hope it's some vicodin, but probably note, huh?"

"Nope," replies Nick as he looks at Cade's injury. "I'm sure the institute can help with that... assuming they ever get here. It's a portable hard drive, marked recorded prophesies. Pulled it from the MiB van, though I'd like to know how they got them, considering they were having to use us to get to her."

 

[Shayuri]

"That's an assumption," Meri reminds Nick. "They were here before us. It's possible they had already done their investigation, and just wanted to know if we found anything different, or more."

She looks around uneasily. "As for the Lords of Sand, that makes as much sense as anything, I guess. But who ARE the Lords of Sand? What are they?" She shakes her head. "I managed to get some of the...well, some of the sand into a baggie. I guess we can have it analyzed back at the main building."

"What do we do with Duffman? He's in bad shape. He's going to die, even with the bleeding stopped, unless he gets real medical help, and soon."

 

[Falkus]

After a few minutes, a black helicopter appears in the distance, and quickly lands in the parking lot. Several men wearing NBC hazard suits and carrying high tech assault rifles exit the helicopter, and enter the motel, ushering you out as they start to secure the building. They have a definite military bearing about them. Another man in civvies is busy setting up a rudimentary medical center, and four more men in State Police uniforms are blocking off the nearby roads.

From there on out, they take over the scene, pretty much. They offer no explanations, just simply telling you to wait when you ask. The doctor treats your injuries in a rather unusual way. He chants what sounds like prayers, though not like any you’ve heard before, and touches your wounds, which close up and heal as he removes his hand. He also takes blood samples from each of you, runs them through some sort of testing machine, and appears visibly relieved at the results. He also treats Duffmann’s wounds, but, in addition, administers a sedative to keep him unconscious.

After a few hours, a few Hummers show up, and some scientist types get out and join the others in the motel. The last man out is Director Stanfield, who walks over to your group, a cigar in his mouth.

"You certainly have a knack for getting into trouble," he said, holding the cigar in one hand. "But you did a hell of a job here. Before we get down to explanations, let's get the minutiae out of the way. I've authorized your promotion to full field agent status, and level four security clearance. You'll now have access to most of our case files, and our extensive library on paranormal phenomenon, including our texts on magic and psionics. Congratulations, you're now officially field agents with the Hoffmann Institute."

[sblock]The Institute acolyte restores you all to full health.[/sblock]

 

[industrygothica]

Nick is a little bewildered at the acolyte, and a whole lot impressed. Now that's a handy trick, he thinks to himself.

When Stanfield mentions the library, paranormal magic and psionics, and more importantly 'access', Nicks perks up considerably. Suddenly he wants to get back to the institute quicker than ever.

"So, what now?" he asks whoever is listening.