Dark*Matter: Discovery, The First Mission

[Friadoc]

As Cade watches the paramilitary types deployed, it's obvious that he's making a mental checklist for the next equipment request.

"I want two of those," says Cade with a grin towards the high tech assault rifles. If anyone even asks, or gives him a look about wanting two, Cade just adds, "When it comes to guns, two is always better than one...always."

"Oh, yeah, one of you needs to learn this, too," jokes Cade while being healed by the Acolyte.

However, when the Director shows up, Cade's demeanor sobers up and he stops making lame jokes and quips to compensate for what just happened.

Well, except for one last joke, after the Director first talks to them, when Cade says, "Well, it was on our resume, sir, right after slightly controlled mayhem, I think."

 

[kinem]

When the 'doctor' heals him, Diego stares in disbelief. "Wow, thanks! You are like some kind of fukking cleric! I mean ... thanks."

 

[iwatt]

We're not in Kansas anymore. Larry's concerns keep him unusually subdued when the Director shows up, and he doesn't participate in Cade's quips.

"Oh, yeah, one of you needs to learn this, too,"

That phrase makes Larry tense up slightly, and he seems to go into deeper thought than before.

 

[Shayuri]

Aside from flushing with embarrassment when Cade makes his quip about someone on the team being able to heal, Meredith remains pretty quiet during the denoument. She turns over the baggie of sand and the unfired shotgun without comment. Even the Director's speech seems to come like a slap in the face to her, rather than a moment of achievement. She manages a wan smile as she shakes the Director's hand, then excuses herself and heads up to the front of the van; using its bulk as a shield from all the people present.

 

[Falkus]

The healer introduced himself as Dr Will Rosenberg. "It's a gift," he explained. "It takes faith, and something more. It's hard to explain. Most of our medical personnel can do it. It makes life easier for our agents if they don't have to keep explaining to friends and family why they keep winding up in the hospital with gunshot wound, stabs, claw marks and all the other injuries you field agents tend to acquire in the line of duty."

Before you leave,Stanfield had a few more things to say. "Now, it's time for an explanation. You probably want to know what you were up against. We call them Sandmen, for obvious reasons."

"They're humans who have been infected with nanobots. They completely subvert the body, enhancing it and turning it into more a machine than a person, but it also rewrites the brain. They become completely loyal to whoever is controlling these nanobots. Make no mistake, a Sandman isn't a human anymore. He has the knowledge of the person infected, but nothing remains of the origina aside from a shelll. We don't know who is behind this nanovirus, but we do know one thing for sure."

"It's extraterrestrial in origin, and the aliens that have created it have an ultimate goal of nothing less than the domination of this planet," he says, with a deadly serious expression on his face, as he reveals to you that humanity is not only not alone in the universe, but is already at war with another species.

"They want to turn us all into their slaves. One of our primary goals at the Hoffmann Institute is to stop this from happening. Magic, psionics, paranormal, learning about that just might give us the edge we need to win this war. Now you know one of the reasons why the work we do is so important. It's not just expanding human knowledge, it's ensuring that humanity actually has a future."

"It's a lot to take in, I know. Take one of the Hummers, and head back to the office. Write up a report, and give it to Leo. You did real good today, you should be proud of yourselves. The special ops boys will clean up the site, and make sure the civilians are okay, and come up with a cover story that we'll give the media."

 

[Friadoc]

"That's good to know, Doc," replies Cade to the Healer Rosenberg before turning his attention to the Director. "Beats saying that the Sandman kicked my butt."

oO Nice Oo thinks Cade of the revelation. oO Advanced civilizations always want to dominate the lesser Oo

However, with a much more somber tone, now, Cade takes it all in and nods at the Director.

"Can do, sir," says Cade with a nod, once they're dismissed. As he heads for the Hummer, he says to the others, "I'll drive." As he pulls into the driver seat, Cade adds, "We should probably write the report while it's fresh in our brain, it's a long enough drive, anyone up for it?"

Regardless of whether the report is written now, or later, Cade will take a crack at that portable HDD (hard disc drive) that Nick found. Also, in his portion of the report, which he'll send in seperately, Cade will put in good words about everyone, as he feels they did a d@mn fine job of it.

Cade will make special note of Meredith and her improved first-aide actions, which kept Duffmann alive, of Nick's search and bomb skills, which might have saved the day had he and Larry failed, and of Diego's willingness to help out and stay with the vehicle when wounded. He also adds how Larry's charge into action helped keep the Sandmen off balance, especially his help in the cross fire action.

Aside from a straight forward account of his own actions in the AAR (after action report), Cade doesn't bring any attention to anything he did, at least he doesn't bring any focus to it. Oddly enough, it's almost as if the job is reward enough for the young man, as if being an agent was his destiny.

OOC

Just so you know, the "Destiny" crack is because I'm portraying Cade as the PC thrown into the "unknown" who just rolls with it. He compensates for it with quips and such, too, but he's been a fringe knowledge type for years (listening to Art Bell and such) and it's always been his dream to be part of something special.

It is in no way any comment about anyone else's characters, just an FYI, it's role-playing, that's all.

On a side note, this is one of the best modern campaigns I've ever been in, right up there with my top two.

 

[iwatt]

During the ride, the usually locuacious Larry is very quiet, not really rising to respond to Cade's quips and jokes. He does bring one thing up though. "Remeber that first sandman. He said something about expecting the builders. Maybe they knew the freemasons were coming?"

After the ride back, Larry asks Nick aside for a private conversation.

[sblock=Nick]
"Doc, I have a favor to ask, and I'd like to keep it between the two of us. What do you know of these psionics the Director brought up? How can someone tell if they have some weird juju going on. And can it hurt them?"

[/sblock]

OOC: yup this is a very cool game. and we got ourselves a good crew here

 

[industrygothica]

[sblock=Nick]
"Doc, I have a favor to ask, and I'd like to keep it between the two of us. What do you know of these psionics the Director brought up? How can someone tell if they have some weird juju going on. And can it hurt them?"

[/sblock]

[sblock=ooc: iwatt, Falkus]I can make some stuff up, or we can do some sort of research check to determine Nick's knewledge on the subject. Surely he's come across the subject a time or two during his arcane studies.[/sblock]

 

[Falkus]

iwatt, industry
[sblock]During his previous studies, Nick did come across the occasional bit of real information about psionics, though the difficulty is in determining fact from fiction. A latent psionic can generally be identified if he has a history of lucky accidents (things falling off of shelves to distract people at crucial moments, for example), very good empathy and/or the ability to routinely guess what other people are saying before they actually say it. Generally, it's not considered to be harmful. Now that Nick has level four access to the Institute's database, he can also find a few tests that can be performed to determine whether or not someone has the potential for psionics.[/sblock]

OOC: Oh, and thank you for the compliments. It's been a real pleasure running this game. I couldn't have done it without you.

 

[iwatt]

iwatt, industry
[sblock]During his previous studies, Nick did come across the occasional bit of real information about psionics, though the difficulty is in determining fact from fiction. A latent psionic can generally be identified if he has a history of lucky accidents (things falling off of shelves to distract people at crucial moments, for example), very good empathy and/or the ability to routinely guess what other people are saying before they actually say it. Generally, it's not considered to be harmful. Now that Nick has level four access to the Institute's database, he can also find a few tests that can be performed to determine whether or not someone has the potential for psionics.[/sblock]

[sblock= Nick, Falkus]Larry's concern seems to grow. But suddenly his face hardens with the memory of a burn across his chest. No point on going back now. If you're going to be fighting the alien threat, maybe an extra edge will help you come back alive.

"Well Doc, I think you've got yourself a guinea pig. I'd rather hash it out with you before I go to the bigwigs at the Institute though. Whenever you're ready for some tests, I'm game."

It seems Larry is looking at the Doctor as the father figure he never had.
[/sblock]